John Taft, Investigative Reporter Op/Ed

GRANTS PASS, Or (4-22 -03) – An insensitive Josephine County Court System squanders budgeted tax dollars with a thoughtless routine acquired from lack of public accountability. It’s alleged that Josephine County judges run a flim flam operation reading sentencing numbers from a roll of the dice, or in response to a bit of undigested food. For example: former Judge J. Loyd O’Neal sentenced Chris Youngblood to 180 days in the county jail for a reported three counts of contempt of court plus 120-days when found guilty by a jury of a criminal charge. It’s reported the DA was willing to settle the 120-day portion of the case for a plea bargain of 5-days in jail. Youngblood refused the deal and represented himself in court. And in the process he offended a reportedly surly bad tempered judge. Judge O’Neal was previously injured in an auto bicycle accident and allegedly is still suffering pain. This reporter could attest to viewing O’Neal acting in a manner unbecoming to a judge while on the bench. Now, Youngblood is sitting out his time at public expense in the local jail at about $65 per day; the total cost is about $12,000 for the contempt of court sentencing and nearly $10,000 for the criminal sentence. That adds up to approximately 22-grand to house a nonviolent offender in the county jail where the jail population has recently been reduced by 70 inmates, allegedly due to a budget deficiency. It appears O’Neal was able to extract some revenge on both the defendant and the taxpayers. This writer does not condone what Youngblood did but is using his sentencing as an example of the silliness of the county judges and the cost to the public for their sentencing methods. Josephine County judges have neither proved the effectiveness of their sentences imposed on individuals as demonstrated in the next paragraph, nor shown good stewardship of public resources as recorded in this article.

The following recent sentences handed down by Josephine County judges to real people show how insipid and improper the 180-days jail time Youngblood received for contempt of court is. The disparity between the following jail sentences and Youngblood’s demonstrate conclusively that there are serious problems in the Josephine County courtrooms. Here is a person that was slapped with 6-contempt of court charges and illegal use of a computer. That computes to just 90-days in the fish tank at public expense. If you plea bargain, you get off the hook with minimal time. For example: For drunken driving and hit and run the daily plea special was just 20-days behind bars. The penalty for encouraging child sex abuse was six months in the county jail and 5 years of probation. Another case was encouraging child sex abuse which got the guy six-months in jail. Compare these two sentences to Youngblood’s 180-days for offending Judge O’Neal. Fourth Degree Assault and menacing was worth 40-days in jail. Probation Violation and Assault 4 was 10-days, a blue light special. Throwing rocks at a vehicle, windows, and a police officer was worth 30-days in custody. Fourth Degree Assault was 30-days and a fine. Burglary 1 was good for 90 days. judge must have had a bad night when he handed down 180-days for eluding a police patrol officer. Another guy got the judge’s special of 30-days when he attempted to elude a police office. For identity theft, (three counts) Second-Degree Theft, (three counts) and manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance was 80-days. Maybe the judge owed that person’s attorney a favor. Probation violation and DUII was 30-days. Resisting Arrest 12-days. Parole Violation and Hit and Run in a vehicle was on special for only 30-days in jail. Probation Violation and Assault-4 was 10 days. Rape 3 was 75-days. Attempted rape of a 15-year old girl netted 30 days in the jug. In Josephine County, Attempted Sodomy 1 appears to be in the same league as Youngblood’s contempt of court, both are 180-days. Remember that for a reported three counts of contempt of court O’Neal lashed out with 180-days for a slip-of-the-lip, and that’s costing the taxpayers nearly $12,000. A recent contempt of court sentence for six counts and interfering with a police report got the offender only 60-days in jail, Figure that one out. It must have been a judge other than O’Neal. There are better ways to handle nonviolent crimes. The taxpayer really can’t afford Josephine County judges’ justice that sentence both the guilty and the innocent taxpayer, one to stay and the other to pay.

Judge Gerald C. Neufeld (Link: documents arrogance) should know all this, as he is the presiding judge for the circuit court. It’s his job to sniff out problems in the courtrooms. As far as anyone knows, he has taken no remedial action to correct this waste of tax dollars. Sheriff Dave Daniel claims he couldn’t keep the jailhouse doors open with the funds he has available for the former average of 172 county inmates. As of April 15, 2002, the inmate count is down to 102. But Youngblood is still listed as a resident in the county jail. Why hasn’t he been placed on home detention or a work release program? The cost for these programs is much less than what it costs the county to keep an individual in jail. This is something Neufeld refuses to talk about. He prefers to complain that the public doesn’t understand what the judges do.

The County Parole and Probation Department headed by Marie Hill offers a much better alternative than jail time in many instances. The general jail cost is about $65 dollars a day. In some cases, the cost of medication runs jail time cost considerably higher. Home detention can drop the cost to $6.65 per day. For nonviolent offenders this is a much more cost-effective solution than jail time. The second program Parole and Probation offers is the work release program offering community service for close to half the cost of jail time. It’s time more use was made of this valuable community resource to take care of the violators of the law. Chris Youngblood should be spending time in home detention at one-tenth the cost of the jail time he is serving. Why haven’t you heard about this from Judge Neufeld? Perhaps Neufeld just doesn’t care, he gets to retire like O’Neal one of these days and draw his cushy retirement. The motto in the Josephine Courthouse appears to be don’t shake the boat or blow the whistle boys, retirement is just around the bend. County Judges and the district attorneys need to examine their sentencing procedures in relation to the cost to the taxpayer and the effectiveness of sentencing. This matter can be addressed with the Parole and Probation Department to save the taxpayer money and still mete out justice.

When Judges Neufeld, Mackay, or Coon are aware of a stupid misuse of taxpayers funds, aren’t they morally obligated to speak out and correct this situation? . The fact is, it seems they also hold their noses while smiling as though there is no problem in the courtroom. When did anyone one heard of a judge raising a matter of conscience regarding another judge in Josephine County? The wanton waste of public moneys will continue as long as judges have few ethics and they have one eye on their pay check and the other on their "Porky Pig" retirement plan.

The reader is encouraged to call the Josephine County Courthouse and leave a message for Judge Neufeld telling him you don’t want to get stuck with a $12,000 bed and breakfast tab for a nonviolent offender. It’s time the judges used their heads and became sensitive to public needs rather than their own. The number for the Josephine County Circuit Court is (541)-476-2309.

John Taft can be reached at joconewsline@hotmail.com This article will be post on StrobeZone at http://www.strobezone.homestead.com