Keep Up Pressure On DUI Repeaters
By the News-RegisterA Shadyside man whose indictment on a third-offense charge of driving under the influence was dismissed may not have escaped justice. It is a situation in which a "technicality" may have resulted in no more than a delay.
West Virginia law, like that in other states, contains a variety of procedural requirements - or "technicalities." One of them is that when someone is indicted for a crime, four copies of the indictment form must be signed by the county prosecuting attorney.
Jason Bradley Smith, of Shadyside, was indicted earlier this year by a Marshall County Grand Jury, on a third-offense DUI charge. Due to an oversight, a copy of the indictment handed to him during his arraignment was not signed.
That forced Circuit Judge Mark Karl to dismiss the indictment on Monday. He had no choice, under the state's Rules of Criminal Procedure.
But on his way out of the courtroom, Smith got potentially bad news from Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Cramer. "I'll sign the next one," Cramer told Smith.
He referred to his plan to present the case again to the November term of the Marshall County Grand Jury. Cramer said he already has told the police officer who investigated the case to refile the charge in magistrate court.
Smith is innocent until proven guilty, of course. His case may well proceed to trial, where he may be acquitted.
But we applaud Cramer's persistence. DUI offenders are threats to the public. Those who continue to drink and drive are indicating a complete and utter disregard for those they endanger - not to mention a scofflaw attitude toward law enforcement. They shouldn't be allowed to escape justice solely because of "technicalities." Cramer's attitude - one shared by most Northern Panhandle law enforcement officers and officials - is to keep the pressure up on DUI repeaters. That is the appropriate attitude toward them.
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PCGS70
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08-28-08 9:32 AM
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Problem solved! Sounds good to me. Thanks Jeff.
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MarCoProsecutor
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08-28-08 9:10 AM
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Someone just told me about these posts the other day so I might as well post here too. I'm Jeff Cramer, Mar. Co. Prosecutor. I'd be happy to answer any questions about this or other articles about Marshall County cases if I can. wvforsale, you are right, it was my fault that those copies of the indictments weren't signed, we indicted about 30 people on over 100 counts in July, which meant we signed over 400 documents, I missed those 2. Signing 4 copies of each indictment is not a legal requirement, just something we did as a courtesy for the clerk's office (so they didn't have to make 3 certified copies to serve on the defendant, prosecutor's office and defense counsel). In this case, we had 2 signed copies and 2 were not signed. From now on, we're only signing 1. The clerk's office can make the copies to serve and there will be no chance that an unsigned copy gets served on the defendant.
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LK0812
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08-28-08 8:04 AM
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WVforsale, I'd sure like to know why you're so mad at the world. Every single post you make is cutting down someone, it must be awful lonely there sitting at the right hand of God.
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wvforsale
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08-27-08 10:10 PM
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four copies of the indictment form must be signed by the county prosecuting attorney. Now Cramer makes the statement "he will sign the next one." Lets see, he didn't sign the first one, and will get it right the second time! Just keep on voting in the same ole do notings and you get what you get! DA's
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Katabatic
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08-27-08 10:07 PM
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"Destroyallmonsters", maybe the best name on this blog. I smile every time I see it. Reminds me of Godzilla and Mothra and thousands of fleeing japanese.
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LK0812
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08-27-08 3:40 PM
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Well, at least by immediately refiling the charges instead of waiting to indict in Nov. he'll be back on bond.
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PCGS70
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08-27-08 3:34 PM
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I predict that Jason Bradley Smith will get picked up again for DUI prior to his case going to court. He knows he's going to jail for a while. His attitude is "I may as well PARTY while I'm FREE." I just hope someone doesn't get killed or hurt
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Destroyallmonsters
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08-27-08 12:42 PM
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Very good article. DUI offenders are some of the most selfish and dangerous criminals out there.
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