Civil rights groups say San Mateo County courts are ignoring bail-reform mandate

REDWOOD CITY — A pair of civil rights organizations have told the San Mateo County Superior Court that its criminal arraignments are routinely ignoring a California Supreme Court mandate to grant more defendants affordable bail and pretrial release.

Bay Area-based Silicon Valley De-Bug and the Civil Rights Corps, based in Washington, D.C., submitted a 400-page complaint earlier this month to Presiding Judge Elizabeth K. Lee that centers on in-court observations of three court commissioners running arraignments in Peninsula courtrooms.

The complaint “highlights that community members are being held pretrial just because of mere fact that they can’t afford bail,” said Sarait Escorza, a De-Bug organizer who helped lead the court-watching effort. “We’re asking for basic protections, and are holding judges accountable and making sure they get the training they need.”

At issue is the application of the Humphrey ruling, made by the San Francisco-based First District Court of Appeal in 2018 and affirmed by the state Supreme Court in 2021. Humphrey mandated that state trial courts factor an arrestee’s ability to pay when setting bail, and directed judges to more heavily consider non-cash release conditions like electronic monitoring programs and drug or alcohol treatment.

Under the ruling, pretrial detention is reserved for people who are deemed a substantial public safety threat or flight risk, or have demonstrated that jailing is the only way to ensure they appear in court. The ruling also ordered that judges conduct individualized assessments of defendants and not solely rely on the courts’ pre-established cash bail schedules.

According to De-Bug and Civil Rights Corps, a team of court watchers that included Stanford University undergraduates attended arraignments between 2022 and 2024 and found that three court commissioners working arraignments either misapplied or failed to apply defendants’ bail rights under Humphrey. After accounting for arraignments observed in other county courtrooms, the complainants contend the issue is systemic.

One claim alleges that the San Mateo County court, in aggregate, is setting higher median bail amounts after the Humphrey decision, which would run counter to the high court’s intent.

“If I was a justice on the California Supreme Court, I would feel both alarmed and disrespected by what is happening,” said Lara Bazelon, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law who co-signed the complaint. “This law is being disrespected by the lower court judges who are required to apply it.”

When reached by this news organization, the San Mateo County Superior Court declined to comment. But in an Aug. 23 letter sent to Bazelon and De-Bug organizers, Judge Lee acknowledged receiving the complaint and that given the breadth of the document, it could take up to 90 days for the court to fully respond.

“Thank you for bringing these important matters to my attention,” Lee wrote. “The concerns expressed in your letter are being carefully reviewed.”

De-Bug and Civil Rights Corps submitted transcripts from 26 arraignment hearings and summarized several dozen more they say prove their allegations. The transcripts focus on court commissioners Ernst Halperin, Cristina Mazzei and Hugo Borja; commissioners carry out limited judicial duties under supervision of the court.

The complaint provides a breakdown of an October 2022 arraignment session under Halperin. According to court transcripts, Halperin set a $15,000 bail amount for a defendant even though a prosecutor did not seek bail or object to his release, and ended the exchange by saying, “I made a decision. I am setting bail at $15,000.”

In that and four other arraignments that day, the complainants assert the transcripts show Halperin repeatedly saying Humphrey arguments needed to be made at a future court hearing, and that in the meantime he would be setting bail that defense counsel had argued was unaffordable for their clients. That would be out of step with other county courts in the Bay Area where Humphrey arguments are often heard and acted on during the first arraignment.

Having to wait for a subsequent court hearing, as opposed to the prospect of affordable bail or release at arraignment, can entail a matter of days. De-Bug organizers assert any unnecessary jail stay can destabilize indigent defendants and their families.

“Some people are facing losing custody of their children, or losing their jobs when they’re held in jail and they’re separated from their families,” organizer Jamilah Rosales Webb said. “There’s this notion that when people do get out of jail, they commit more crimes. But when they get out of jail they actually reconnect with their families, and work with their attorneys better than they would in custody.”

In cases where pretrial detention extends to weeks or months, the civil rights groups say the consequences could be more dire: since 2023, five people have died in San Mateo County jail while waiting for their day in court. Those deaths occurred for a myriad of reasons, but organizer Lourdes Best said that reflects the danger posed by any jail stay, especially if Humphrey relief exists.

“There’s a risk factor of being in custody, where they don’t have the medical care for some people who have different types of illnesses that are not properly met in the jail,” Best said.

Civil Rights Corps attorney Carson White said the stakes are too high not to make swift changes.

“With the levels with which we’re seeing judges flat out refuse to comply with binding constitutional law, it’s not just about integrity,” White said. “It’s a crisis of legitimacy.”