MAHONING COUNTY JAIL Officials hope study will move cases along

The jail is holding 50 nonsentenced inmates booked before 2005.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Since April 2001, Damita J. Lee has been in the Mahoning County Jail awaiting a murder trial, and Deborah Graham, also charged with murder, has been there since March 2002.
Because the women can't post their bonds -- $50,000 for Lee and $500,000 for Graham -- they remain in jail. Also, because the charges stem from crimes of violence, the women don't qualify for emergency jail release.
After inmates won a class-action lawsuit in March, Mahoning County common pleas judges established a 13-step release mechanism to reduce the jail population. The jail can hold 564 inmates but is limited to 296 by federal court order.
Records show the jail is holding 50 nonsentenced inmates booked before 2005. Lee has been there the longest, but other inmates booked in 2002, 2003 and 2004 also are awaiting court action.
Toledo attorney Vincent M. Nathan, the special master overseeing the jail for a federal judge, is conducting a docket efficiency study. Nathan, who has called the county's criminal justice system dysfunctional, is tracking the time that elapses from arrest to final disposition of cases.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said Tuesday that he could use the jail cells occupied by inmates awaiting trial -- such as Lee and Graham -- to house prisoners who were sentenced but released on furlough. Inmates out on furlough must return at some point to complete their sentence.
Wellington said his department has been sending records to Nathan's assistants who are conducting the docket study. The sheriff doesn't know when the study will be done but knows it will show a backlog of prosecution cases.
Wellington said he hopes the docket study will determine the cause of the backlogged cases. He said Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains believes adding assistant prosecutors will help move cases along.
The women's cases
Lee, meanwhile, was 27 when arrested and charged with aggravated murder and aggravated arson. The Helena Avenue woman is accused of killing 41-year-old Achilles Cummings of Center Street. He was found April 23, 2001, in a burned-out car at Chicago and Earle avenues on the South Side.
Records show the case, originally assigned to Judge Robert G. Lisotto, who retired, is assigned to Judge Maureen A. Sweeney in common pleas court. The case has been reset for a variety of reasons over the years.
The case is set for trial in late October.
Graham, of Columbus, was 41 when arrested and charged with the aggravated murder of Ulysses Watkins, 55, of Youngstown. He was found outside a house on the East Side with a gunshot wound to the back March 26, 2002.
As with Lee, Graham's case was originally assigned to Judge Lisotto and is pending with Judge Sweeney. Likewise, the case has been reset for a variety of reasons over the years.
Records show a motion was filed in late July to continue the trial.
meade@vindy.com