Marshall Project's False Narrative: In February of 2017,
repeat felon and gang member Michael Mejia, released from prison a
year earlier and a few days after release from jail for another
crime, murdered his cousin and stole his car, got in an accident and
murdered a responding officer. At the time of Mejia's arrest, law
enforcement officials and victims groups pointed to California
sentencing reforms (AB109 and Proposition 47) as the reason Mejia
remained on the streets long enough to commit the murders. A recent
LA Times article by Abbie VanSickle and Richard Winton cites a review
the paper conducted with the Soros-funded Marshall Project which "found a far more complex chain of events that allowed Mejia to
remain free despite his record of criminal behavior." The main
findings reported in the article are: 1) Mejia's probation officer
used excessive short jail stints to correct his criminal behavior.
2) The county was too slow in referring Mejia to drug treatment and
when they finally did, he didn't show up. 3) The county waited too
long to get tougher on Mejia for repeated new crimes and the
prosecutor failed to have the probation officer participate in the
plea bargain for his last offense.
This is a remarkable example of "hide the ball" that no serious
person could possibly believe. Between 2010 when Mejia went to
prison for Armed robbery and beating his victim with a baseball bat
and 2014, when he went back to prison for grand theft auto, Jerry
Brown signed AB109. That law made Mejia eligible for early release
because his violent prior and gang membership could not be
considered. Also because of AB109, Mejia was considered a low risk
offender who did not qualify for the intense supervision of parole,
so he was released on the light supervision of county probation.
Because of AB109, if Mejia violated this probation or committed new
crimes, unless he committed a violent crime, the worst punishment he
could receive is a short stay in LA's overcrowded county jail.
Before AB109 and Proposition 47, Mejia could have been sent back to
prison for a year on his first violation of parole, and certainly
for committing any new felony.
The Times/Marshall Project narrative is that bureaucratic mistakes kept Mejia on the streets. The fact is that AB109 and Proposition 47, took the supervision of Mejia away from law enforcement and gave it to a newly formed brigade of bureaucrats under pressure by state law to give him repeated chances to show up for a program or reform himself. He did neither. And two innocent people are dead, including a police officer who was trying to do his job.
The Times/Marshall Project narrative is that bureaucratic mistakes kept Mejia on the streets. The fact is that AB109 and Proposition 47, took the supervision of Mejia away from law enforcement and gave it to a newly formed brigade of bureaucrats under pressure by state law to give him repeated chances to show up for a program or reform himself. He did neither. And two innocent people are dead, including a police officer who was trying to do his job.
Here are some actual facts from the LA Times
"Under criminal justice reform laws that have been the target of pointed criticism, probation officers could have sent Mejia to jail for 90 days after he violated the terms of his release. That's close to the average amount of time for which an offender accused of a similar violation would have been sent to prison after violating his parole under the old system, before AB 109 and Propositions 47 and 57.
In fact, the Probation Department did recommend the full three months in jail, followed by another three months in a drug program. The deputy district attorney, however, agreed to jail time of just a few days."
That is the fault of the LA DA not the law.
Also, the "newly formed brigade of bureaucrats" are county probation officer, who are law enforcement.
Whenever law enforcement and prosecutors fail to do their jobs they always find someone or something else to blame.
Prior to AB109, Mejia would have been on parole and would have been violated back to prison for one year. The LA County jail is over capacity and cannot hold a probation violator for 90 days. Before AB109 most probation officers did not even carry a gun.
We agree with the Whittier Police Chief, the Los Angeles County Sheriff and Mejia himself, who told detectives that he was on the street because of AB109.