Francisco S. Perez, posted the $20,000 bail and disappeared

Francisco S. Perez, posted the $20,000 bail and disappeared — only to be caught Wednesday with a cache of weapons, including an assault rifle, body armor, marijuana and other drugs.This time he is being held without bail, Deputy Pima County Attorney Richard Wintory said.Perez's story is not uncommon, said Wintory, who contends judges often set bail too low because they rely on questionable information or mistaken perceptions.To prove his point, Wintory had staff members compile statistics on bail conditions set in all Counter Narcotics Alliance cases for the past five years.They found nearly a quarter of those arrested by the alliance disappear after they are released, Wintory said — a statistic he calls especially alarming because they may be among the most dangerous offenders in the community.
While their motivation is drug running, the nature of the business frequently involves weapons, violent assaults, home invasions, kidnappings for ransom and even murder — sometimes with innocent victims caught up in the crossfire.
Rick Peck, Pretrial Services director, could not verify Wintory's numbers but noted that 16 percent of those arrested for all types of crimes in Pima County abscond after being released from jail.When judges set bail, they are supposed to consider the charges, family ties, employment, financial resources, criminal record, length of time in the community and history of making past court dates.
Much of that information is gathered by Pretrial Services.Wintory believes judges give too little consideration to the type of charges Counter Narcotics Alliance defendants are facing.More significantly, he believes judges rely too heavily on information Pretrial Services gets from defendants' families about their community ties without independent verification."It isn't their ties to the community we should be concerned about," he said. "It's that they have resources and an interest in staying in business. The absconders we've caught are caught committing more of the same types of crimes."Counter Narcotics Alliance defendants, if convicted, almost always face mandatory prison time, Wintory said. Yet if a defendant's wife says the defendant has lived in the same house and worked for the same employer for decades, her word is taken at face value without verification.Too many times, detectives later learn the defendant's address is non-existent and the claimed employer has never heard of the defendant, he said.
Here is one statistic he discovered: Of the Counter Narcotics Alliance's arrestees who run, the largest share — 33 percent — are those who actually posted bail. The rest vanished after being released on their own recognizance or to a Pretrial Services monitoring program.A few show up again, but only when they're arrested for committing another serious crime, such as in Francisco Perez's case, Wintory said.
County Attorney Barbara LaWall said she suspects drug dealers flee more frequently than most suspects because they put up cash. Other defendants put up the equity in their homes or the homes of their loved ones and are unwilling to lose their property to a bail bondsman if they run.Wintory also determined that of the 526 people Counter Narcotics detectives have arrested over the last five years, 304 have been released on bail, on their own recognizance or to Pretrial Services.
A third of those who took flight after posting bail vanished before they were arraigned, Wintory said. That means they hadn't been officially informed of the charges against them and given an opportunity to say "not guilty," so they can't be tried in absentia.If his numbers are accurate, they are a "cause for concern" and need to be looked into, Presiding Tucson City Court Judge Tony Riojas said.
But Riojas and Pretrial Services Director Peck defended Pretrial Services, saying the department does a good job compiling information for judges in a short time.
Peck said he doesn't believe there is a widespread problem with absconders in the general population. He wouldn't comment on Wintory's figures for the more dangerous Counter Narcotics Alliance defendants because his office doesn't separate the numbers that way.