SAN JOSE After an emotional bail hearing Friday, a Santa Clara County judge denied pretrial release for the lone adult charged in a notorious gang assault at Santana Row last year that ended with the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy out on a Valentine's Day date. Emanuel Sanchez-Damian's defense attorney lobbied for the 19-year-old to be placed in a faith-based rehab program, citing his troubled and neglected childhood that made him susceptible to gang recruitment.
In the just-released court documents, United States Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh ruled that the government carried its ultimate burden to demonstrate that there are no conditions of release the Court could impose to reasonably assure the safety of the community. With that, the court granted the government's motion and ordered that Mr. Cole shall remain detained while this case proceeds.
Howard "Howie" Rubin, a once-prominent Salomon Brothers investment banker featured in the 1985 Wall Street expose "Liar's Poker," must remain in a federal jail in Brooklyn indefinitely as he fights sex-trafficking charges, a judge ruled on Wednesday. It was the third bail denial for Rubin, accused of paying women, many of them former Playboy models, $5,000 to engage in "fetish play," then constraining and torturing them, including by electrocuting them against their will.
Women are the fastest growing incarcerated population in the United States. The female incarceration rate has ballooned by more than 700% since 1980 - 172,700 women and girls were in jail or prison in 2023. A quarter of these (46,300) are confined because they were either refused bail or cannot afford it, rather than because they were found guilty of a crime. Over 14,000 are awaiting trial for drug-related offenses.
Aleksanteri Kivimäki, convicted of thousands of cybercrimes linked to the Vastaamo data breach, has been released from custody by the Helsinki Court of Appeal. The decision followed two days of testimony from Kivimäki, who denied all charges. The court cited his prolonged pretrial detention as the reason for release. He has been in custody since February 2023. His trial will continue through November.
Right-wing Bolivian opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho has been released from jail after spending nearly three years in pretrial detention for his role in unrest that led to the 2019 ouster of then left-wing President Evo Morales. As the political right's momentum accelerates ahead of a presidential election run-off in October, Camacho returned to a hero's welcome in the eastern province of Santa Cruz after his release on Friday from a maximum-security prison near La Paz.
Zoom in: Under cashless bail, a suspect doesn't need to pay money to be released from custody before trial. Trump previewed his support for ending cashless bail in D.C. earlier this month. When he announced his decision to federalize the D.C. police force, he called the policy a "disaster." Analysts say such claims aren't supported by crime statistics, which show an exceedingly small percentage of defendants are arrested for violent crimes while awaiting trial.
