By Kevin Simpson
Pantagraph Staff
August 16,
2002
BLOOMINGTON
-- Despite a practice of
holding domestic
violence suspects overnight or
until the next
scheduled court session, a
Bloomington
attorney was released from jail this
weekend within
90 minutes of calling a judge.
Attorney Kirk
A. Holman, 41, of the 3100 block
of Creek Side
Road, was arrested by
Bloomington
police and booked into the
McLean County
jail just before 10 p.m. Sunday.
He then contacted
Associate Judge Paul
Lawrence,
who arranged for his release.
State
law dictates a domestic-violence
defendant appear
before a judge, who is to set
conditions
of bond. With the McLean County
Law and Justice
Center closed on Sundays,
Holman typically
would have had to wait for a
Monday-afternoon
bond hearing.
But Holman
called Judge Lawrence, who called
McLean County
Assistant State's Attorney John
Prior.
Judge Lawrence
told Prior he had spoken with
a law-enforcement
official about Holman's case
and received
enough information to established
a factual basis
to set bond, Prior told The
Pantagraph.
In another
apparent deviation from standard
practice, it
appears it was the judge who gave
details of
the case to the assistant state's
attorney. Normally,
a prosecutor from the state's
attorney's
office reviews police reports before
considering
charges or bond.
Prior said
he thought the details he learned from
Judge Lawrence
were sufficient.
"In the judgment
of Judge Lawrence, he thought
that the P.R.
(personal-recognizance) bond and
72-hour no-contact
order was sufficient," Prior
said. "I said,
'That's OK.'"
Holman was
released within 90 minutes of his
booking.
Prior
conceded the circumstances were
unusual, and
he acknowledged keeping a
defendant in
jail for more than a few hours also
helps establish
a "cooling-off period" in which
the suspect
and victim are definitely separated.
"That's the
standard. If somebody gets arrested
and it's Saturday
night, then normally they would
have to sit
until Monday," Prior said.
On Monday,
Holman was formally charged with
three misdemeanor
counts of domestic battery.
Authorities
allege he threw a TV remote control
that struck
a woman in the arm, causing a mark,
and that he
struck the woman in the back with
his foot or
hand. Holman's arraignment is set for
Sept. 10.
Holman referred
questions to his attorney,
William Yoder,
who could not be reached for
comment Thursday.
It is not clear
whether Lawrence, a judge for five
months who
is in charge of the misdemeanor
division, visited
the courthouse Sunday evening.
Lawrence
declined comment, saying he could
not discuss
a pending case. Holman's court file
has a handwritten
note from Lawrence stating
he consulted
with Prior before bond was set.
John Freese,
chief judge for the 11th Judicial
Circuit, said
he has discussed the matter with
Lawrence,
but Freese declined to discuss
specifics.
The chief judge
did say, while unique
circumstances
occasionally arise after hours,
judges typically
refer criminal suspects and
defense attorneys
to the state's attorney's office.
"This issue
has been addressed," said Freese.
"He (Lawrence)
is understanding of our
procedures and expectations."
email: clr@clr.org
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Posted August 17, 2001