Akron Beacon Journal (OH) - Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Author: Gina Mace, Special to the Beacon Journal
Stow Municipal Judge Kim Hoover looked over pictures of a developmentally challenged Cuyahoga Falls woman.
Her attacker stood before the judge and waited to be sentenced last fall.
The photos showed the skin around the woman's eyes as a swollen mass of purple and red. An outline of the attacker's fingers was visible in the bruises on her neck. The bone at the base of his hand made another bruise on her throat.
Authorities say the woman, who had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, was attacked by Bryan Burns, 35, of Kent, after she interrupted him playing a video game at the woman's apartment. She considered Burns to be her boyfriend.
''He held her against the wall while he bashed her face,'' Hoover recalled this month.
When considering the sentence, Hoover said, he looked over Burns' record.
Burns spent six years in prison for a 1996 Wadsworth carjacking. His companion in that crime was a 14-year-old girl.
He also had convictions for domestic violence, drug abuse and negligent assault.
Burns told police that he had failed to take his medicine for paranoid schizophrenia and had been drinking before the attack last fall.
Hoover sentenced Burns in September to six months in the Summit County Jail and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine - the maximum sentence for assault.
When Burns is released this month, he will begin two years of intensive probation -- also ordered by Hoover.
What Hoover didn't order - and what the judge says he couldn't stop - was Burns' transfer to the Oriana employment placement program.
Because of jail crowding, Burns was transferred to the Oriana program eight days after he was sentenced by Hoover through an order signed by a Summit County Common Pleas Court judge.
Diana Kovack, Summit County Jail population administrator, said she begins screening inmates when the male population reaches 467. On the day Burns' transfer was prepared, 572 men were incarcerated in the jail.
Some inmates are released and some are sent to Glenwood Jail ? a 24/7 lockdown facility owned by Oriana House and guarded by Summit County sheriff's deputies.
Kovack said Ohio standards for minimum security jails don't allow violent offenders to be held in Glenwood.
That's why Burns has been able to spend the past six months attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings outside Oriana House and visiting the downtown library every other week. In January, he began attending classes at the University of Akron.
''So we can't put him in [Glenwood Jail] because he's too scary, so we'll release him to the streets,'' Hoover said. ''It doesn't make sense.''
Burns declined to comment.
Hoover said he understands Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander has a difficult job keeping inmate numbers at a manageable level.
The judge does take exception to the system of emergency orders that releases a person without anyone taking a hard look at the facts of the case.
''This guy is low to moderate risk?'' Hoover said. ''In this case, he has severely beaten a diminished-capacity woman. I would say that guy has a 100 percent chance of violence just looking at his record alone.''
Hoover said he doesn't understand why Oriana doesn't have a lockdown program for violent misdemeanants.
''They could put them in work release, then not release them,'' Hoover said.
Oriana Executive Vice President Bernie Rochford said there has been talk about building a lockdown facility for misdemeanor offenders, but there is no money.
In the meantime, all Oriana House can do is try to prepare people like Burns so that they are less likely to reoffend.
''Research and experience shows the more offenses and criminal activity you have, the more likelihood of increasing the risk of reoffending,'' Rochford said. ''If there are a lot of needs and you address those needs, you lower the risk of reoffending.''
Hoover's complaint isn't new, Rochford said. Judges have been complaining since the practice began with a Common Pleas Court order about 20 years ago.
''There's been a frustration for a lot of the municipal court judges for a lot of years in the lack of jail space,'' he said.
Rochford said Hoover always has the option to contact Oriana to express his concerns about a particular defendant.
Better communication would help. But it has to start before an inmate is transferred, Hoover counters.
''I want them to call me, not report to me that they've released [a prisoner],'' Hoover said.
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