PROVO, Utah (ABC 4 News) – Career criminals, in and out of custody, over and over again. Law enforcers, frustrated.
ABC 4 took action to find out how habitual offenders in keep getting out of jail to commit more crimes.
We examine the records of three men who have plagued Utah County for more than ten years. One of them is accused of trying to kill two Orem police officers.
The first - Ira Jay Walker.
“Just about every officer in Utah County knows who you’re talking about when you mention his name,” said Orem Police Sergeant Craig Martinez.
Walker made news in December, 2009 when police say he stole a car from a church parking lot one Sunday in December, 2009. It would have been just another garden variety crime, except for the fact police had already arrested Walker 27 times in 23 years on more than eighty criminal charges. Even more frustrating for police, Walker had just been in court two days earlier to face other charges. The judge, Claudia Laycock, had allowed him to pay $250 and bail out of jail.
Hank Weiss was in church that Sunday when his truck was stolen. He didn’t have kind words for Walker or for the judge who let him out on bail 48 hours before the incident.
“There comes a point where someone might be able to use some good sense and say, ‘Let’s keep this punk locked up.’” Weiss said.
Even Walker appears to agree he’s a menace. His listed occupation on 28th arrest report reads: “Thief.”
Before Walker, law enforcers say Michael Victor Pino was a plague on Utah County.
"I think if you talk to anybody,” said Utah County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Dennis Harris, “they’ll tell you this man is a menace to society.”
Pino’s rap sheet shows 49 arrests on more than 100 criminal charges, dating back about twenty years. The charges include repeated counts of Theft, burglary, forgery, and drug possession, among other crimes.
Pino recently made news when a Utah County Major Crimes Task Force SWAT team arrested him on a warrant that included no fewer than 17 criminal charges. When Pino appeared in 4thDistrict Court for his bail hearing, Judge Claudia Laycock released him on his own recognizance.
Commenting on what appears to be a trend of revolving door justice in Utah County, Lieutenant Harris said, “At some point in time, you almost have to ask yourself, ‘When are we going to stop doing this?’”
Many law enforcers in Utah County who don’t want to be identified as critics of the judges say they fear a cop may get killed before things get better.
It almost happened in Orem, in November of 1999.
"It was just a suspicious vehicle call,” says Garrett Smit.
He was one of two Orem police officers who responded to the call that day.
“It was a vehicle, parked in a driveway with the engine running,” he said as he recounted his brush with death.
Officer Smit arrived at the scene tofind his partner, Officer John McCombs, lying in the driveway, bleeding from the head. Smit ran to assist.
"All of the sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw this truck barreling down on me, ” Smit told ABC 4.
"I drew my pistol and started firing through the windshield.”
“More out of luck than skill, I think I grabbed on to the front bumper with my right hand.”
Officer Smit saved his own life. He held on to the bumper, refusing to slide under the vehicle, until the driver ofthe SUV rammed Smit’s police cruiser, backed up, and sped away.
Smit suffered severe back injuries, broken ribs, a punctured lung, a crushed leg, cuts, and bruises. He moved to Oakland, California where he is now a sergeant with the Oakland Police Department. Every day, he says, he thinks about how close he came to dying in Orem.
"It comes with the job,” he said.
It would be four years before the suspect in the attack would be captured.
Pasadena, California police chased down a stolen car. Behind the wheel, Reinhold Christian Neumann. On the front seat of the stolen car, Orem Officer John McCombs’s service weapon.
Neumann was extradited back to Utah to face two counts of attempted homicide of a police officer. What happened next, Smit called outrageous.
"He’s released,” Smit recalls.“That makes no sense.”
His voice still quivers and his brow furrows when he talks about it eleven years later.
Court records document what happened in Judge Anthony Schofield’s courtroom. Neumann, identified by police as a “violent offender,” appeared via video from the Utah County Jail for his bail hearing. His attorney, Scott Davis, asked the judge for reduced bail, one-third the $150,000 bail that had been set. The assistant prosecutor did not protest. Judge Schofield granted the request.
The defendant’s father paid the required $5,000, one-tenth of the $50,000 bail, and the man accused of trying to kill two cops walked out of jail. Orem police detectives say Reinhold Neumann is now hiding out in Santiago, Chile, his father’s homeland.
“No matter where he is,” said Smit, “he’s a danger to everybody, not just police, to everybody out there.”
Judges won’t answer questions about these cases. They’re constrained by the Utah code of judicial conduct. They have an attorney who speaks for them - the State Court’s chief legal counsel, Brent Johnson.
Johnson examined the cases we investigated and answered questions about why these repeat offenders were allowed to walk into the court and walk right back out again.
The first question: Do judges know how frustrated police and crime victims are by the justice system?
"I think that the judges are aware of the concerns of law enforcement and victims, ” he said. “And I also hope law enforcement and victims understand the perspective of judges.”
In case after case, judges reported through Johnson they didn’t have the information that would have alerted them accused criminals they were letting out on bail had long records that strongly suggested they were flight risks or threats to the community.
Ira Walker.
Why did a judge let him walk away for $250 after he’d been arrested 27 times?
“If the judge had some foresight, some extra sensory perception or whatever,” said Johnson, “the judge perhaps would have known this person is likely to commit the crime, then perhaps the bail would have been set higher.”
I interrupted.
"Wouldn’t his record have been an indicator to give the judge a little bit to go on,” I asked.
“That may have been the case, ”Johnson responded, “but the judge didn’t have the record.”
Utah County’s chief prosecutor seemed to support the decision, saying police didn’t write a strong enough report to convince the judge to accept a felony charge.
"The problem is you’ve got to have probable cause on that felony to set good bail, even on a recidivist criminal.” he said.
Michael Pino.
After 48 arrests, why was he released on his own recognizance?
Again, Johnson said the judge presiding over the hearing didn’t have enough information.
"Because there wasn’t probable cause that this particular defendant committed these particular crimes, the judge had no choice but to release the defendant.”
Reinhold Neumann.
When I pressed the question police wanted answered, the prosecutor seemed to do an about-face.
“The bail was $50,000 cash or bond which is pretty good bail around here," said Buhman.
"Even for somebody who tries to kill a couple of cops?" I asked.
"Well,” he paused, “It’s never high enough bail for somebody who tries to kill a cop," he said.
Buhman did not criticize or even question any of the judge’s decisions in the cases we examined.
Sergeant Smit, though, had harsh words for the judge who let his accused attacker walk out of court.
“If you were to take a look at a brief synopsis of this man’s criminal history,” he said, “nobody in his right mind would give him bail.”
Smit went on.
“The community is at risk,” he said.“We had the opportunity to keep him in prison and we blew it.”
County Attorney Buhman said his office is reforming the system. He introduced what he called the “Persona Non Grata” program. Each repeat offender in Utah County is place on a special list. They are also assigned to one prosecutor and one judge. The program’s intent, said Buhman, is to stop the system’s revolving door. Buhman boasts a 100-percent success rate.
