Latest / Brian Thomas / Ohio State Rep DJ Swearingen - Holly's Law

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Ohio State Rep DJ Swearingen - Holly's Law · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Hey's Brian Thomas, host to the fifty five Cassey Morning Show,
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  Speaker 1: on the heels of talking with Holly, obviously the namesake
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  Speaker 1: behind Holly Act. I want to bring to the fifty
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  Speaker 1: five Casey Morning Show and welcome and thank you representative
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  Speaker 1: DJ Sweringen from Huron, who was the man behind Holly Act,
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  Speaker 1: the mister Spurringeon. Thank you for coming on the morning
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  Speaker 1: show today to talk about this.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks, Brian, really appreciated invitation and the ability to
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  Speaker 2: talk about the bill.
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  Speaker 1: Well, a long standing problem here in Hamilton County anyway.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure how things are in your region,
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  Speaker 1: but we have a lot of woke judges who don't
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  Speaker 1: believe in bonds. They think no bond are very very
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  Speaker 1: low bond. We have criminals with demonstrably recidivism in their blood.
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  Speaker 1: They have many, many convictions for felonies, weapons, under disability,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, etcetera. They're in front of a judge on
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  Speaker 1: yet another crime and they've let him out or give
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  Speaker 1: them a really low bond. And that's exactly what happened
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  Speaker 1: to the I believe the individual who beat down Holly.
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  Speaker 1: You've introduced this Holly Act and or at least as
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  Speaker 1: a concept, and it's designed to deal with just this.
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  Speaker 1: And I think the most effective thing that's in this
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  Speaker 1: is your brilliant concept of allowing the attorney general to
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  Speaker 1: appeal what he perceives or she perceives as a low bond.
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  Speaker 1: I think that acts as a looming sort of threat
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  Speaker 1: to the judge who might otherwise issue a low bond
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  Speaker 1: in the first place, recognizing that someone can appeal the
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  Speaker 1: decision and bring it to everyone's attention.
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  Speaker 2: Your reaction, yeah, I think get the nail on the head, Brian. Really,
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  Speaker 2: the goal here is accountability and transparency in our justice system.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, what we're seeing increasingly is a small
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  Speaker 2: number of people just like you described, commit most of
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  Speaker 2: the violent crime in our communities in Ohio. So we
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  Speaker 2: have a bill that is tailored towards you know, repeat offenders, felons,
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  Speaker 2: violent criminals. You know, we have a host of things
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  Speaker 2: in the bill requiring pre trial assessments for felons or
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  Speaker 2: violent crimes before setting bail, requiring pre trial assessments if
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  Speaker 2: there's a hearing to consider no bail, because we have
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  Speaker 2: circumstances in Ohio where a judge can say you don't
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  Speaker 2: get any bail in the appeal requirement, we have some
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  Speaker 2: accountability where if a defendant skips out on court, uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know two times in the last five years, they're
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  Speaker 2: going to lose the ability to get a personal recognisance bond.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to have to pay twenty five percent of
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  Speaker 2: their bond, which right now it's ten You know, are
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  Speaker 2: there is showing up for court. It's not optional. You know,
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  Speaker 2: that's that's not how we're going to do this in
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  Speaker 2: the state of Ohio. And then one of the other
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  Speaker 2: points in there that's really important, and my joint sponsor,
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  Speaker 2: Representave Loray made a great point or a press conference,
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  Speaker 2: is you have to show that you have the capability
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  Speaker 2: to actually pay your bond. Right now, Some courts do
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  Speaker 2: it very well. They have a sheet you have to
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  Speaker 2: fill out include financial information, the ability to pay. Some
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  Speaker 2: courts you just have to put your address down. And
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  Speaker 2: Representive Loray on Wednesday made a great point you have
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  Speaker 2: to fill out more information and get a library card.
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  Speaker 2: So we're taking this very seriously. You know, the debate
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  Speaker 2: is going to get started. Did when the hearings kick off.
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  Speaker 2: I expect a robust debate on this issue and all
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  Speaker 2: the interested parties system.
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  Speaker 1: There's yeah, and there should be a robust debate on this,
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  Speaker 1: because you know, the little libertarian I mean kind of
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  Speaker 1: scratching my head over some of this. Like you mentioned,
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  Speaker 1: you have to show the ability to pay the bond.
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  Speaker 1: I understand that. But sometimes the judges, and I would say,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps the more woke judges, say, well, this person is
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  Speaker 1: indigen I can't impose a bond on them because that
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  Speaker 1: just means they're gonna be stuck in jail. So what
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  Speaker 1: is the retort to that inevitable argument?
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  Speaker 2: You can have You have those considerations before the bond
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  Speaker 2: is set. So when a judge looks at what type
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  Speaker 2: of bond they're going to award, they look at a
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  Speaker 2: host of factors, right, They look at ability to pay,
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  Speaker 2: they look at flight risk, they look at threat to
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  Speaker 2: the public safety, which is debate we had in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty two. They take this big picture and your right
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  Speaker 2: to say, you know, bond shouldn't just be who can
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  Speaker 2: pay and you can't. That's not what this is about.
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  Speaker 2: This is about who is a danger to the community
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  Speaker 2: to the victims, who's a repeat offender, who's a violent offense.
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  Speaker 2: We're looking at the really bad crimes here, the violent crimes.
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  Speaker 2: That's really what we want to go after, not we're
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  Speaker 2: not looking at you know, the lower offenses, and the
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  Speaker 2: judges are in great position to make these decisions. But
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  Speaker 2: if you are hit with the bond, that's fair based
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  Speaker 2: off of all of those factors. You got to show
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  Speaker 2: that you can pay it at the very least so
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  Speaker 2: and if you're indigent, the judge will considered that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, have considered it. They always have Representative DJ Sweringen
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  Speaker 1: from here on with the Holly Act we're talking about now.
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  Speaker 1: That allows me to pivot over to one more element
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  Speaker 1: of this is the one that I think maybe likely
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  Speaker 1: for a legal challenge. The ability to pay the bond.
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  Speaker 1: That's the factor. But what about entities like the Bail
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  Speaker 1: Project which provide heaploads of money and can come in
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  Speaker 1: like and I think I said to Holly a White
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  Speaker 1: Knight to post the bail or the bond for any
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  Speaker 1: given individual that I guess if they consider some sort
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  Speaker 1: of charitable organization. But if the Bail Projects they're standing
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  Speaker 1: with the money, then I guess the defendant would have
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  Speaker 1: the ability to pay the bond. But your bill addresses
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  Speaker 1: that type of.
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  Speaker 2: Activity, Yes, it does we put a limit on what
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  Speaker 2: charitable bail organizations can provide at five thousand dollars. We've
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  Speaker 2: also said that they cannot sail out any alleged defendants
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  Speaker 2: did the two with violent crimes, So we're putting some
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  Speaker 2: guardrails around the charitable bail. We expect that the constitutional
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  Speaker 2: issues are going to be raised. We think we can
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  Speaker 2: prevail on those. This has been done in other states.
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  Speaker 2: I think Kentucky passed a similar law recently. So you know, look,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to have the debate. Like I said, we're
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  Speaker 2: happy to and that's how the process works in our country,
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  Speaker 2: and we're proud of that. We do think we have
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  Speaker 2: the winning arguments on that. At the end of the day.
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  Speaker 1: Well, ultimately, I hope you're right for the interest of
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  Speaker 1: the community generally, speaking into board events something like Holly,
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  Speaker 1: the issues with Holly happening again or maybe even worse
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  Speaker 1: now finally without before we part company, you represent a
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  Speaker 1: swarre engin where is it in process? Is still being drafted?
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  Speaker 1: You know how close to being complete is it? And
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  Speaker 1: I guess because my listeners are great about getting engaged
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  Speaker 1: and doing calls to action and contacting their elected officials.
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  Speaker 1: So how far down the road are before we have
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  Speaker 1: something finalized.
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  Speaker 2: We've introduced the bill. We introduced it Wednesday afternoon after
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  Speaker 2: we had our press conference. The bill is still awaiting
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  Speaker 2: a committee assignment. I think that will either happen today
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  Speaker 2: or Tuesday, based off of the House procedural process, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and then it'll get a signed to a committee, thinking
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  Speaker 2: either the Public Safety Committee or the Judiciary Committee or
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  Speaker 2: the most likely recipients of this bill. But that's up
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  Speaker 2: to the House leadership.
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  Speaker 1: Well, considering the leadership makeup in Ohio, and I know
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  Speaker 1: I'm always disappointed when I say this ultimately, but given
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  Speaker 1: the makeup politically, it just looks like it has a
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  Speaker 1: good chance of passing. So Representative Swargen, thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your efforts. I hope it does bear fruit, and we'll
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  Speaker 1: get my listeners on the horn and get in touch
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  Speaker 1: with their elect officials to push it through.
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  Speaker 2: He got it. Thanks Brian,