Forgotten, Man Sits In Jail For Two Years

by Robert Patrick - August 31st, 2008 - St. Louis Post Dispatch

Shepard, 53, is a man the system forgot, apparently ignored by his own attorney — and the prosecutor and judge — as days ticked by in a municipal lockup where he was confined to a cell 23 hours a day.

[snip]

Shepard has mainly communicated with Kelly, his lawyer, through family. He said Kelly visited him July 17 to tell of a potential plea deal for a four-year sentence. Shepard said he wanted to take the deal.

But prosecutors said Kelly turned it down the next day.

All the while, it appears Kelly did nothing to try to secure his client's release on bond.

Kelly, who has a private practice and also is a municipal court judge in Potosi, has not responded to repeated phone calls and e-mails from a Post-Dispatch reporter over more than two weeks.

I think the fact that his lawyer is also a Judge is the problem in this case. Judges in America come in two types. Decent people who hate the system. Or arrogant know-it-alls who act like Gods. I bet even money that Kelly is one of the latter. They are the kind of judge that has destroyed our court system.

They are the ones who replaced the rule of law with the rule of judges.