Michael Wayne Goldston already had a record of violent crime when Durham, N.C., police jailed him last summer on his most serious charge yet: murder, the Charlotte Observer reports. Nine months later, a man was attacked and robbed on the street. One of the suspects was Michael Goldston. Police took him back to jail. In April, investigators raided a house and found crack cocaine. Police took Michael Goldston back to jail. That’s where Goldston is today, unable to make $500,000 bail on his probation violation charges. Goldston, 23, has got out of jail three times, only to return on new charges.
Some community leaders say Goldston’s case is emblematic of the problem of criminals getting out of jail to commit more crimes as they await trial. Matt Yarbrough, a former City Council member and a member of the Durham Businesses Against Crime and the Durham Crime Cabinet, says, “We have to have a red flag when these violent people come in, to make sure they are detained as long as they can be.” Judge Orlando Hudson said those concerns have to be balanced against the rights of the accused. Hudson, who lowered Goldston’s bail in one case, said, “Any judge would be a fool to let someone out they thought was going to commit violent crimes, but my recollection is that he had been in custody for an inordinate amount of time.” He said prosecutors weren’t moving forward on the drug case, and it was illegal to hold Goldston beyond a certain point.
Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/sunday/front/story/2622836p-9059229c.html