There’s a lot of CYA going on in the death of Leonard Black in the county jail. In follow-up story in the News Journal, the reporter tries to find out how the man could remain in the jail for over six months for a violation of parole (a driving without a license charge) and rack up $330,000 in medical bills that the county must pay.
The story from Judge Shackelford and asst. State Atty Greg Marcille is that Black remained jailed in what judges call “will call” status. They claim that this means “defense and state attorneys contact the judges when they are ready for the case to proceed.”
In other words, it was the fault of Black’s attorney, Ted Stokes, for not pushing to have the hearing earlier.
We polled area defense attorneys. They say that “will call” means “we’ll call you.” They say that the judges controls their dockets and they tell the defense attorney when the hearing will be.