In Chino, California, located to the west of Los Angeles, something very bad happened last December. Authorities from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department had spotted a wanted felon named William Shae McKay driving in their district. They gave pursuit and McKay led them on a high-speed pursuit along I-15. McCay was finally brought to a halt and wound up being killed by the deputies, but not before he shot and killed motorcycle deputy Isaiah Cordero. The entire thing was caught on video. But in the aftermath of the investigation, it was learned that McCay never should have been out in public. He had previously been arrested on charges of kidnapping and robbery, with a long rap sheet already established. But San Bernadino County Superior Court Judge Cara Hutson significantly lowered the bail requested by prosecutors allowing McKay to walk free and later skip his court date. Now the Chino City Council and law enforcement agencies are calling on Hutson to resign her position or for the state senate to remove her from the bench. (CBS News)

During their meeting today, nearly two months after the ordeal, the Chino City Council denounced the San Bernardino County Superior Court judge who presided over the case, claiming that this violence could’ve been avoided if she didn’t lower the violent criminal’s bail.

“Cara Hutson, the San Bernardino County Superior Court judge presiding over this case demonstrated a lack o discernment and negligence in granting this violent individual bail,” said Chino Mayor Eunice M. Ulloa.

The mayor claimed Judge Cara Hutson’s decision to lower McKay’s bail on kidnapping and robbery charges gave him no incentive to return to court for sentencing. Given his violent criminal history, Ulloa said he was a clear danger to law enforcement and the public.

Clearly, William McKay had already been given one too many chances by the system and didn’t have any interest in being rehabilitated and returning to a productive life in society. And his willingness to engage in a gun battle with that many deputies speaks to a dangerously unstable personality.

So why did Judge Cara Hutson slash his bail and turn him out on the streets yet again? She isn’t saying, but that has been a constant theme in California’s legal system for some time now. The results have been predictably awful.

But it’s unclear how Hutson can be removed from the bench if she doesn’t resign voluntarily. (And there’s no sign of that happening thus far.) The signatories to the letter mentioned above are asking the state senate to remove her, but the senate doesn’t have that power, or at least not directly.

According to Article VI of the state constitution, the senate would need to petition the Commission on Judicial Performance to conduct a review of the judge. Even then, any recommendation by the Commission to have her removed would have to go before the State Supreme Court. Further, there are requirements imposed before such action can be taken, with most of them specifying that the judge is convicted or at least indicted on a felony-level charge. She may be terrible at her job, but charging her with a crime at this point could be a dubious proposition.

There is a passage in Section 18 of Article VI that addresses the removal of a judge for “willful misconduct in office, persistent failure or inability to perform the judge’s duties.” But that’s also somewhat on the vague side. Drastically lowering the defendant’s bail may have been a terrible idea given his violent history, but it was still an action that was legally available to the judge as part of her “duties,” so claiming willful misconduct could be a long bow to draw also.

If law enforcement and the state legislature can’t shame Hutson out of office, there simply may not be much to be done until the end of her current term.  But unless Californians want to see more law enforcement officials be killed in this fashion, they need to stop electing officials who immediately jump on the bail reform train.