A civil rights lawsuit alleging Kern County Superior Court has violated the constitutional rights of roughly 50,000 criminal defendants over the last decade was reassigned to a Solano County courtroom last month for adjudication, and the outcome of the case could set a precedent for how prosecutions are handled statewide.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed the complaint on behalf of the UFW Foundation and three individual plaintiffs in May 2023, arguing that Kern County is operating a “plea mill” or “fast track plea system” in violation of criminal defendants’ constitutional rights to counsel and due process. They also allege discrimination against individuals found by the court to be mentally incompetent to stand trial in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The complaint lists Kern County Superior Court, Kern County, the county sheriff and its chief probation officer as well as the Superior Court’s presiding judge and court executive officer as defendants in the case. Kern County is located in the Central Valley, with Bakersfield as its county seat.
“For years, it seems decades, there has been a fast track system geared toward quick convictions no matter the consequences,” said ACLU attorney Emi MacLean on behalf of the plaintiffs. “What this has meant is that there’s no accountability for police or prosecutorial abuses of power.”
They allege that tens of thousands of Kern County defendants are shown an informational video while in custody and subsequently pressured by probation officers to plead guilty at their first court appearance, before ever speaking to an attorney.
For years, it seems decades, there has been a fast track system geared toward quick convictions no matter the consequences. … What this has meant is that there’s no accountability for police or prosecutorial abuses of power.
ACLU attorney Emi MacLean
Black and brown defendants are alleged to be disproportionately represented in this cohort, as are immigrants and anyone with limited English language skills — especially defendants with developmental disabilities or mental health problems.
The plaintiffs include two defendants whose rights were allegedly violated and a local immigration activist suing for increased access to the plea process. One is Laura Hart, a homeless woman in her 60s who was allowed to plead guilty despite a previous finding that she was not competent to stand trial.
Another is a 59-year-old man identified only as John Doe who was undergoing treatment for psychosis and was off his medication when the court accepted his guilty plea.
Jeannie Parent is a retired English professor who provides volunteer services to immigrants. She has been denied access to closed-door criminal proceedings that should have happened in open court, according to the ACLU.
‘Most egregious’ judicial system
“It is not a problem that is unique to Kern County, but Kern County has the most egregious system that we’ve seen,” MacLean said.
“I’m glad to say that it’s in the minority in counties across the state — but to the extent that there are other counties in California and elsewhere that have practices allowing for systemic fast-tracking of pleas that run roughshod over the rights of individuals who go into court, we hope that they also take notice and that there can be meaningful reform,” MacLean said.
The case was originally filed in Kern County in May 2023, but the ACLU had Kern County Superior Court judges disqualified due to their participation in the constitutionally questionable prosecutions at the heart of the complaint in a process that took roughly eight months and ended earlier this year.
“Finally in January the Kern County Superior Court judges were all disqualified,” MacLean said. “The Judicial Council was then responsible for identifying a judge to oversee the case and ultimately transferred (it) to Solano County.”
Kern County has filed a demurrer, or a motion to dismiss the case, which is scheduled to be heard in Solano County Superior Court by Judge Dan Healy in Vallejo at 8:30 a.m. on July 10.
Kern County’s sheriff, Board of Supervisors and county counsel all declined to comment on the ACLU’s allegations, as did a spokesperson for Kern County Superior Court.
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