P. v. Continental Heritage Ins. Co.
In July 2010, Alireza Al Sazefari was arrested on felony domestic violence charges, and appellant Continental Heritage Insurance Company issued him a bail bond for $150,000. Al Sazefari was personally present for his arraignment on those charges on Monday, November 15, 2010, but his retained defense counsel was not present. At that hearing Al Sazefari was specifically ordered by the trial judge to surrender his Iranian and American passports to the prosecutor for safekeeping within 48 hours, but because his counsel was absent, the arraignment itself was continued to December 20, 2010.
Al Sazefari failed to surrender his passports, so the prosecutor’s office notified the trial judge’s staff about it. Upon receiving this message the judge decided he was not going to take “unilateral†action, but rather scheduled a hearing for the afternoon of Thursday, November 18, 2010, so that Al Sazefari’s lawyer could have notice and be present. No one, however, appears to have notified Al Sazefari.
At the Thursday afternoon hearing, the prosecutor asked the trial judge to revoke Al Sazefari’s bail in light of his noncompliance with the order to surrender the passports. The trial judge, however, declined, “because the defendant was not ordered by the court to be here.†The judge also kept the December 20 arraignment date.
Comments on P. v. Continental Heritage Ins. Co.