Paperwork--the Silent Killer

Yah, they did it again!!

A woman told police Julius M. King, 22, pointed a shotgun at her and threatened to kill her Aug. 11, but the misdemeanor charge filed against him in that case four days later didn't result in a warrant until Sept. 11 - four days after King's arrest in the Aug. 26 shooting death of Fabian Binns.

A month here, a month there...

According to police records shared by District Attorney E. Michael McCann, King's neighbor told police he pointed a shotgun at her Aug. 11 after she and his girlfriend had been brawling outside. King didn't answer his doorbell when police got there, so a report was filed.

On Aug. 15, a prosecutor working in the nearest police station under McCann's community-prosecution program signed a criminal complaint charging King with endangering safety, and it was sent downtown the next day so a Circuit Court commissioner could authorize an arrest warrant.

But that took weeks, McCann said, because the neighbor was the only witness against King.

Under McCann's policy, the head of the misdemeanor unit reviews all such cases.

"It is slowed by the fact that we are careful that we don't issue a warrant incorrectly," McCann said.

Oh--it gets better:

Assistant District Attorney Karen Loebel, head of the misdemeanor unit, approved a warrant by Aug. 31, McCann said.

In the interim, King was on the street, and according to another criminal complaint, on Aug. 26 he fetched his .38-caliber revolver from the basement of his home to follow up on an argument between Binns and a woman. He went to the scene of the fight and found Binns on a nearby sidewalk. King, wearing a mask, approached Binns in front of a gas station, closed his eyes and fired a shot before running away, the complaint says. Binns, shot in the back of the head, was later pronounced dead at the scene.

King was charged on Sept. 8 with first-degree intentional homicide in Binns' death.

Three days later, Court Commissioner Barry Slagle signed the warrant for King's arrest on the Aug. 15 misdemeanor charge, which was to be taken to the clerk of courts' office for processing.

Slagle had the paperwork on August 31. He signs it on September 11th.

Labor Day weekend, and all, you know.

As to the real problem (you've already guessed, right?)

McCann blamed the delay on a matter of resources.

"It's all backlogged," McCann said. "There's people with a lot of things, people with priorities they have to do."

McCann said his office was short on both staffing and money

So "waving a shotgun around" is not a priority because we need more TAX MONEY.