Out local ABC affiliate, WFAA, has been following the case of some serious allegations against the Haltom City jail and a municipal court judge. I commented on the complaints against the judge earlier. A new complaint was filed yesterday against not only the judge, but the entire city council
The lawsuit makes charges of a widespread pattern of unconstitutional pratices and conditions. It repeats complaints, first reported by News 8, that jailers had sex with inmates. But, named in this action are seven city council members, Haltom City itself, and 36-year-old municipal judge Jack Byno.Wow! $24,000 for truancy. That's way over the line. Clara Harris only got a $10,000 fine (although she did get prison time) for murder. I guess the old saying about power corrupting is true. This judge sounds like a petty tyrant who got off on exercising extreme power over the people who came before him. Posted by Aubrey at February 19, 2003 09:50 AM
Judge Byno, who made his last municipal court appearance in January, was known as Max Jack for the tough fines and sentences he handed out. The lawsuit alleges that Byno violated people's civil rights, and that the city council is responsible for the system he used.
Cited in the case is an unnamed 18-year-old male, charged with truancy, who allegedly appeared before Byno. The judge fined the 18-year-old approximately $24,000. After he'd served five weeks, the suit said, his grandparents had to take out a home equity loan of $16,000 to pay the city to get him released.
Attorney Everett Newton tries dozens of cases in Dallas Municpal Court each week.
"I've never seen a municpal judge make that type of decision," Newton said. "Most people have an expectation that the judge they appear in front of is going to be famailiar with the law, and is going to be judicious, and use good judgement and be reasonable when dispensing justice."
But, the attorney suing Haltom City, Michael Pezzulli, said that in Byno's case, that didn't happen in perhaps thousands of cases.
"If you cannot pay the fine, you'll sit it out for $100 a day," Pezzulli said. "And the law has been clear for years: you simply cannot do that."
The suit said Byno misuesed what's called a capias warrant.
"It's not appropriate to say, 'I'm throwing you in jail unless you give me all the money I want from you'," Pezzulli said. "That's where he stepped over the Constitutional line. That's the problem."
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