To the editor:
The recent release on $500 bail and subsequent flight of migrant Cory Alvarez, alleged to have raped a disabled child by force, highlights a little known but serious problem in our judicial system: When a judge is appointed to the court, he or she sits on both civil cases and criminal cases, whether or not they have ever had prior experience in the criminal arena. In this instance, the Alvarez judge was a very experienced attorney in the civil arena, but she was woefully unqualified to make bail decisions, and made a terrible error in this case. The public suffers greatly when attorneys, who have devoted their entire careers to non-criminal legal matters, ascend to the bench. The public cannot continue to suffer through what can only be viewed as on-the-job training — the stakes are simply too high, as we have witnessed.
This travesty was predictable also because the ALL-Democrat Governor’s Council, many of whom were criminal-defense attorneys, ENCOURAGED her to be lenient in bail hearings and at sentencing. During the vetting process, this judge, then nominee, told the Council what it wanted to hear — that she would exercise her discretion and not be “victim-driven” in bail hearings, which is exactly what we saw play out in the cut and run of Alvarez last week in Brockton Superior Court. To the public’s dismay, her sympathy for an unknown alleged assailant outweighed her duty to protect the public as she failed to take into consideration several essential requirements for bail — the abject depravity of the crime for which he was charged, the accused’s lack of family ties, and the short nature of his presence in the community.
This judge is not the first to have made glaringly apparent accommodations so that migrants may avoid ICE detention requests, most publicized being the judge who allowed an alleged criminal to escape out the back door of the courthouse to avoid ICE officers.
It is up to the Governor’s Council, as the only check on the governor’s unbridled discretion and authority to nominate judges, to vet judicial nominees thoroughly to ensure that the bench is not philosophically opposed to detaining dangerous migrant criminals, as is trending. The Superior Court was meant to be the gateway to justice for victims but because the Governor’s Council is not living up to its obligation to provide this check on executive power, the courts are not living up to their obligation either.
When this alleged child rapist was first charged, Gov. Maura Healy declared, “We need to let our criminal justice system to do its work.” Now, the public must demand better from its elected Governor’s Council – they must demand they DO THEIR JOB and protect the public!
Anne Manning-Martin
Peabody City Councilor and Republican nominee for Governor’s Council District 5
