Delayed justice

Here is a nice Hutch News article reporting on a Reno County acquittal after the client spent a year in jail pretrial. The article does a nice job of pointing out the delays caused by high turnover in both the prosecutor and public defender offices:

Bradley Verstraete spent a year in jail after his arrest in August 2006, when sheriff's officers suspected he was attempting to manufacture methamphetamine.

But it took a Reno County jury just an hour to determine he was innocent.

Officers said little to him when he was released from the Reno County Jail, Verstraete said. "They just wished me luck."

Now, the 36-year-old man needs all the luck he can get. Verstraete said his only possessions are what he was wearing when he was set free."I'm just glad it's over," he said. "It was a pretty big inconvenience in life."

Yeah, I guess a year in jail would be an inconvenience to me too. Good job to Sarah McKinnon for getting the right result in the end.