Are Utah Justice Courts Unconstitutional?
When lawyer Neal Hamilton sat down with a Sandy Justice Court prosecutor in October 2009 to discuss his client Burk Thueson’s court appearance later that day, Hamilton says the prosecutor told him, “He’ll be a grandfather before he gets out.” Thueson, 36 years old and homeless, was appearing before Judge Susan Weidauer on multiple offenses involving public intoxication and other alcohol-related charges. The prosecutor was as good as his word. Despite the efforts of Hamilton, who was appearing probono as a favor to Thueson’s father, and his request that Thueson be put into the Correctional Addiction Treatment Services (CATS) program in Salt Lake County’s Oxbow Jail, the judge followed the prosecutor’s recommendation. After Thueson’s guilty plea, she sentenced him consecutively to 90 days for each case, totaling 450 days—without treatment.
