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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Justices hear Pa. case of love, poison
PARAMOUR from A1 for trying to poison her husband’s girlfriend, was represented Tuesday by a legal heavyweight, Paul D. Clement, a solicitor general under President George W. Bush. Clement urged the justices to reverse a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia that Bond cannot bring a constitutional case under the 10th Amendment because the amendment applies only to states and not to individuals. “It is hard to imagine an injury more particularized or concrete than six years in federal prison, and the liberty interest she seeks to vindicate is her own, not some third party’s,” Clement argued. Several times, elder members of the court, including Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, steered the debate away from the merits of the prosecution and its salacious details back to the matter at hand — whether Bond had “legal standing,” the right to challenge the law. “The whole point of separation of powers, the whole point of federalism, is that it inheres to the individual and his or her right to liberty,” said Kennedy. “And if that is
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infringed by a criminal con- noxasine from the firm’s lab. viction or in any other way She also ordered from a phothat causes specific injury, tography retailer a supply of why can’t it be raised?” potassium dichromate, leChief Justice John G. Rob- thal if digested in doses of erts Jr. added: “Pretty harsh, more than one-quarter teaif we’re talking about … stand- spoon but an irritant if exing, to deny that to a criminal posed to the skin at lower defendant.” levels. Although Bond’s lawyers Over eight months that behave challenged the federal gan in late 2006, Bond used law’s constitutionality, they the chemicals 24 times to try do not deny the to harm Haynes, sensational allesprinkling the Bond’s lawyer gations: substances on said the In 2006, Bond her Norristown was thrilled to home’s doorgovernment learn that her knob, car-door erred in using handles, and mailbest friend, Myrlinda Haynes, a terrorism law box. “None of was pregnant. these attempts to prosecute was successful or She became enraged, however, sophisticated,” a domestic when she discovher lawyers ardispute. ered that her husgued. band of 14 years, The friend reClifford, was the father. ceived one chemical burn on “This double betrayal her thumb. brought back painful memoHaynes called local police ries of her own father’s infi- and received what she condelities,” her lawyers argued sidered a lame response. An in a brief, “and caused [her] officer suggested that the to suffer an emotional break- substance might be cocaine down.” and told her to clean her car And so, as summarized in a and home handles “on a reglower-court opinion, “she ular basis.” Instead, Haynes vowed revenge.” alerted her local letter carriBond, who worked as a mi- ers, and they notified the crobiologist at Rohm & Haas U.S. Postal Inspection SerCo., stole the arsenic-based vice, which sent federal chemical 10-chloro-10H-phe- agents to investigate.
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The agents set up a surveillance camera to record the door and mailbox and captured Bond stealing mail and lacing Haynes’ car muffler with potassium dichromate. Bond was charged with violating a federal law that incorporates an international treaty, the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, that requires nations to prosecute citizens who use chemical weapons. The novel prosecution was brought by Amy L. Kurland, then an assistant U.S. attorney and now Philadelphia inspector general. Bond, 40, pleaded guilty, but her local lawyer, Robert E. Goldman of Warrington, preserved the right to challenge the constitutionality and application of the law, arguing that the federal government had gone too far in using a terrorism statute to prosecute a domestic dispute that should have played out in state court. U.S. District Judge James T. Giles sentenced Bond to six years in federal prison — a term Goldman says is three times higher than she would have received if convicted under routine state assault laws. On appeal, Goldman argued that the federal chemical law, as applied in nonter-
Clearing the Record The college for which Ashley Gale plays basketball was reported incorrectly in Tuesday’s Sports section. Gale plays for La Salle. ¢ An incorrect age was given for Deidre Rountree, profiled in a “Looking for Work” article Sunday. She is 44. ¢ A story Monday about Teamsters union elections wrongly described the source of a sanction against current president James Hoffa. He was found in violation of union election rules by the Teamsters’ internal election review board. He has appealed. The Inquirer wants its news report to be fair and correct in every respect, and regrets when it is not. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, contact assistant managing editor David Sullivan (215-854-2357) at The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia 19101, or e-mail dsullivan@phillynews.com.
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The second twist came during the appeal to the Supreme Court. The U.S. government, which originally applauded Read a transcript the appeals court’s decision of the court arguments on legal standing, announced in the case via that it now disagreed with http://go.philly.com/bond that reasoning. In other words, it planned to argue rorism cases, is unconstitu- that Bond could indeed bring tional because it is vaguely her appeal — though, it arworded and violates the 10th gued, she would still lose on Amendment, which, in its the merits. own vague language, reRather than dismiss the serves for the states “the pow- case, the Supreme Court took ers not delegated to the Unit- the unusual step of appointed States by the Constitu- ing a special lawyer to defend tion. …” the appeals court decision – a A case with unusual facts decision that signals that the took a few unexpected twists justices could view the case on its way to Tuesday’s oral as one it wants to use to make argument. or clarify case law on state First, the three-judge Third rights, or on the implementaCircuit panel that heard tion of treaties. Bond’s appeal decided the The Bond case was notable case largely on a procedural for one other reason Tuesday. issue, one that neither Gold- It landed on the fifth anniverman nor a second prosecutor, sary of cases in which Justice Paul G. Shapiro, had raised. Clarence Thomas has famousThe appeals court ruled that ly not asked a question duran as individual, Bond lacked ing oral argument. standing to sue the governIndeed, during Tuesday’s ment because the law in the session, Thomas was the only case is related to the 10th justice who did not speak. Amendment and therefore involves state rights, not indi- Contact staff writer John vidual rights. Because the Shiffman at 301-320-6655 or court rejected Bond’s appeal jshiffman@phillynews.com. on procedural grounds, it did not consider the merits of her ¢ Parents lose vaccine suit case. at Supreme Court. E5.
Courts’ crackdown starts on Monday COURTS from A1 temporary waiver of the steep collection costs traditionally associated with pursuing such debt. It will be replaced by a three-tier program that steadily rachets up the pressure and penalties on debtors. “These people have been thumbing their noses at us,” said David D. Wasson, chief deputy court administrator. “It’s a court order, and we want compliance.” For decades, Philadelphia court officials have presided over an ineffective bail system that allowed accused criminals to skip court virtually without consequence. Defendants routinely failed to appear in court and just as routinely, failed to pay the forfeited bail that was supposed to come due as a result. Over time, that debt grew so massive that court officials initially had difficulty tallying it. When they did so at The Inquirer’s request, the total amount due came to $1 billion. As The Inquirer reported in November, the Philadelphia courts have been similarly lenient in collecting tens of millions of dollars in restitution owed to crime victims, and they have lagged in dunning criminals for millions more in fines and court costs. Philadelphia defendants are supposed to be paying $144 a million a year in fines, fees and restitution. Yet they are paying only $10 million a year, or about seven cents on the dollar. Most are months in arrears. The new court effort aims to change that. For most defendants, the payment plan will not be onerous. People who owe less than $9,000 — the average court debt is $3,750 — will be asked to pay a minimum of only $35 a month. “Even if you’re not working, you can afford to pay us something,” Wasson said. “You could afford a dollar a day to your court. That’s less than a bag of chips.” The “penalty-free” period announced at the beginning of the year brought an initial burst of new money: $2.7 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15, compared with $1.2 million collected during the same period last year, Wasson said. “That’s more than double,” he said. Wasson is now the top official of the Philadelphia courts after the retirement of Court Administrator David C. Lawrence. To warn debtors of what’s coming, the courts have put together a $15,000 radio campaign to begin Thursday night and end Monday. “The clock is ticking” the ads say, reminding defendants that
they have only a few days to avoid surcharges. To test the new system, the court selected 200 defendants with unusually large debts of $40,000 or more and hired a law firm to pressure them to pay up. Wasson said that 4 percent did so in just one year. That rate, Wasson said, was “awesome, because people were telling us you might get 1 to 2 percent — ever. So 4 percent in one year is awesome.” The new crackdown is to be supervised by the Office of Court Compliance, headed by deputy court administrator Glenn Bozzocco, who will oversee a staff of six. Under the three-tier program, the court system itself would initially dun debtors, sending letters out automatically as defendants who fall 30, 60, and 90 days behind. If that doesn’t work, the debts are to be turned over en masse to a collection agency, ACS, a Texas-based division of Xerox. ACS, under contract with the courts since 2008, says it uses a “soft” approach to drum up money, pursuing defendants with letters and phone calls. ACS keeps 17 percent of what it collects; its commission is added on top of the debt. If this approach fails, the court has created a collections tier. On Friday, it hired six area law firms to target the most hard-core debtors. According to Wasson, these firms could attach wages or even force the sale of property to collect. The firms would extract a 25 percent collection fee, and debtors would also have to pay 6 percent interest on the overall debt. The six firms are to initially take on $270 million in collections. “If we can get 4 percent back on that,” Wasson said, “it would be beyond our wildest dreams.” He said the courts would carry out the policy with care. For one thing, he said the law firms would not go after relatives who might have cosigned for defendants. Nor, he said, would the campaign target the impoverished. “We’re not going to make people homeless,” he said. “We’re not going after grandmom.” But Wasson said the courts would not hesitate to crack down on the most flagrant deadbeats. “If you have a half-a-million house and you owe us $50,000 and you refuse to pay us even the $35 a month,” he said, “we’ll require you to downsize.” Contact staff writer Nancy Phillips at 215-854-2254 or nphillips@phillynews.com.