Child-abuse charges in New Mexico compound case are dismissed after prosecutors' lapse

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



By Eli Rosenberg
August 29 at 8:29 PM

Two judges dismissed charges Wednesday against the defendants in the New Mexico compound case that has drawn headlines for weeks for its lurid and racially charged details, in a major blow to the prosecution.

Judge Emilio Chavez said that he had no choice but to release the three defendants, Lucas Morton, Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhannah A. Wahhaj, because the office of District Attorney Donald Gallegos failed to schedule a court hearing to prove they had probable cause for their arrest within 10 days, as state rules stipulate, according to court representatives and defense lawyers. Another judge later ordered the dropping of charges against the other two defendants, Siraj Wahhaj and Jany Leveille, according to Ryan Laughlin, a reporter for the local television station KOB, but the status of their potential release is less clear as they were immediately charged again with more severe offenses: child abuse resulting in death.

“For whatever reason, the state did not obtain a preliminary hearing date within 10 days,” Aleksander Kostich, a public defender representing Morton, told The Washington Post. “It’s absolutely bizarre.”

“I wish they had an explanation,” Megan Mitsunaga, who represents Subhannah Wahhaj, told The Post. “They provided none to us or the court. I would have thought they’d be more on top of things, the way they continued to seek to hold them without bond.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/08/30/child-abuse-charges-new-mexico-compound-case-dismissed-after-prosecutors-lapse/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b002d39d8547

[lapfog_1]

1. This is a true WTF moment...

Donald Gallegos needs to be replaced.

[7962]

2. What about the training of children to do shootings? Planning to attack an Atlanta hospital?

This hasnt gotten nearly the attention it deserves and I dont know why.
A dead child, kidnapping, planning attacks, training children and the DA cant even get abuse charges right???

[obamanut2012]

8. Because there is zero proof of it

There is proof the dead child was kidnapped by his father, and taht's a different issue.

You get white militia and alt-right do this "training" with their white kids all the time, right? It isn't illegal.

[7962]

9. There is proof of it. I dont consider CBS, Atlanta Journal & CNN right wing sources

Simply teaching kids to shoot is not illegal. Preparing for an actual target is. The FBI arrests people all the time in the "planning stages".
One of the targets was Grady Hospital in Atlanta. Just look it up.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. this will spawn a thousand right wing nutter conspiracy theories.

[ck4829]

6. A part of me wonders if that's the idea. This isn't the first time the DA messed up here.

The 63 million who came in second place in 2016 will be more OK with suspending civil liberties and due process to keep us safe from TEH MUSLIM.

[christx30]

7. I mean, a child is dead.

He was kidnapped from Georgia and brought to New Mexico because his father thought he was the messiah. They tried an exorcism on him to cure him. If this was a Christian faith healer, calls for his blood would be deafening.
This isn’t about Teh Muslim, except for the fact that he seems to have received a pass for his criminal behavior, both from the prosecutor (though, that might be incompetence), and the public at large. Hell, red light runners are treated worse.
If trump is who his supporters think he is, the Feds will arrest them on terror related charges, and ship them to Gitmo. They’ll get a hearing in, say, 2022.

[marble falls]

10. Just a touch Islamiphobic, there. Christian faithhealers have to resort to physical ...

beating of a victim to death before they are seriously punished.

That poor little boy had severe life threatening physical conditions. There's no evidence or hint he was beaten.

This isn't over and they can be recharged.

[christx30]

11. Not always.

This, from a progressive site:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2018/03/faith-healing-parents-convicted-in-death-of-2-year-old-daughter/

Convicted of endangerment and involuntary manslaughter.
I hope the people in New Mexico are charged federally. There’s no way prosecutors in New Mexico will be able to pull their heads out of their asses long enough to do the right thing.

[marble falls]

12. How long were they in prison? I'm guessing no more than three or four years. Now if they ...

been guilty of the sort of stuff that defies description anyone can read in hundreds of news sources from anything we can seek on DU to Breitbart and much, much worse. I did not read anywhere that the judge dismissed with prejudice. Someone (from the state or fed) will offer the right mentoring for prosecutors to get the correct charges made that will lead to whatever justice there is.

New Mexico's prosecutors and district attorneys must be effective to some degree - I never saw so many prisons in such a sparsely populated state - after you discount Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos there's not many people there.

Some very, very scary prison's there. I will never, ever commit a crime in New Mexico.

[keopeli]

4. The reason that ABQ has such a horrible crime rate:the cops are bad and the DA is incompetent!

[ck4829]

5. And before, people were sending threats to the judge. The DA fouled up 100% though.