Eight Months Forgotten in the County Jail
Charles K. Steele sat in the Tacoma jail awaiting trial until the evidence, the witness, and finally the prosecutor's memory all vanished — so he pleaded to a lesser charge and walked out in 90 days.
Tacoma.—After spending eight months in the county jail, following his plea of not guilty to a charge of grand larceny, Charles K. Steele was arraigned on a charge of assault in the second degree and on pleading guilty was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail by Superior Judge Easterday.
All trace of evidence against Steele on the former charge has been lost, including the complaining witness, and his case had been entirely forgotten by the prosecuting attorney.
“All trace of evidence against Steele on the former charge has been lost, including the complaining witness, and his case had been entirely forgotten by the prosecuting attorney.”
A man rots in jail not because he was convicted but because the system simply forgot him — the evidence lost, the witness gone, the prosecutor's attention elsewhere. The right to a speedy trial exists precisely to prevent this kind of bureaucratic abandonment, and cases still surface today of detainees held months past their charges.
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