Continued Alameda County Court Errors Cause False Arrests, Extended Jail Time

The presiding judge for Alameda County courts said he would consider a request to compel court clerks to keep accurate records of cases -- the latest development in what's been widely described as a disastrous implementation of an electronic filing system called Odyssey.

Since its early August rollout, the system's clunky interface and seemingly random glitches have resulted in an unknown number of errors, according to Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods, who filed identical motions in over 2,000 cases involving his office since November, each calling on the court to fix the problem.

"It’s such a wide-scale problem that it’s impossible for us to capture all of the mistakes," Woods said in court Tuesday. "It comes down to the system: Odyssey does not work for our county. It does not work for our court where we have such a high volume of criminal cases."

Woods' office has also cataloged 51 cases in which defendants were arrested on warrants that had been recalled, kept in jail beyond their release date, kept on probation after it should have been terminated, required to register as sex offenders when that was not a condition of their case, or had misdemeanors erroneously recorded as felony convictions.

"This is just a snapshot of the type of error and harm that’s been occurring," Woods said. "It’s the tip of the iceberg."

In a recent example, a defendant facing revocation of his parole appeared in court on Jan. 17 and a bench warrant seeking his arrest was recalled. But that change didn't make it into the e-filing system. He was arrested two days later and spent almost a week in jail before the error was caught and corrected.

Presiding Judge Morris Jacobson said the court has "certainly been trying" to address the issues and asked if there had been any improvement since August.

"I have seen some improvements," Assistant Public Defender Charles Denton replied. "Where I’ve seen the improvements is in the human effort. It seems to me that your staff is working incredibly hard, at a pace that I’m not sure they can maintain."

But even as court clerks implement a fix, such as a paper workaround to ensure judge's release orders make it to sheriff's deputies or a software fix that appears to have ended erroneous sex offender registrations, another issue pops up, Denton said.

"It seems like every time we turn around there’s a new problem popping up." he said, citing a recently discovered glitch that's erroneously assigning cases to the wrong judges. "There’s a finite amount of effort that you can ask your staff to do. I think they’re working well over 100 percent. I don’t think that’s sustainable."

Jacobson said he would consider a proposed order from the public defender, which is scheduled to be filed in early February. Woods said it would likely reflect his motion calling for "an accurate and contemporaneous record of court proceedings."

But it's unclear how the court will get there.

"It’s more than symbolic, so [the presiding judge] will make efforts to make sure the court order is followed through with," Woods said. "With regard to how he does it, that’s going to be up to him. He’ll figure that out."

One option could be to compel Odyssey's vendor, Tyler Technologies, to dedicate resources to fixing Alameda County's issues, Woods said.

"Tyler has some sort of responsibility in this mess," he said. "The courts purchased a system -- they were told it could do one thing and clearly it can’t."

Woods isn't alone in that sentiment. Three plaintiffs allege in a proposed federal class-action lawsuit in Tennessee that arrestees in Shelby County are being systemically deprived of their constitutional
rights since Odyssey's implementation in October 2016.

The lawsuit filed on Jan. 9 also names the county and officials there as defendants, alleging they "ignored these dire warnings by recklessly choosing to implement the Odyssey system ... causing inmates to linger for days and weeks in the Jail in direct violation of their constitutional rights."

That could also be true in Alameda County, according to a declaration from the clerk's office division director of criminal operations, filed with the court on Tuesday.

Director Tracy Wellenkamp declared that she was part of a team working to implement the Odyssey system in 2015 and 2016, and at one point asked a specialist from the company to demonstrate how clerks could update cases in real time.

"I played a training video of a judge imposing terms and conditions of probation," her declaration says. "The Tyler Implementation Specialist was unable to capture any of the minute order entries or otherwise demonstrate that the system could be updated in real-time in a courtroom setting."

A spokesman for the company said that Tyler Technologies has implemented case management software in jurisdictions throughout the U.S.

"The Odyssey system in Alameda is the same software being used successfully across the country, including 23 California counties and large, complex implementations," the spokesman said in a written statement. "We aren’t aware of any software issues in Alameda County that would result in the issues reported in the press, and Tyler is prepared to work with the Alameda Court to analyze the situation and support them as needed."

The company declined to specify where its system was being used in courts' criminal sections, which are often busier than civil courts. Errors in criminal courts are also more serious, as they can result in unwarranted jail time, false arrests and other constitutional violations.

The company disputes the allegations in the Tennessee lawsuit, though, and again mentioned press coverage as the force behind the criticism.

"Although we do not comment on pending litigation, Tyler cannot ignore the similarities between the allegations in the lawsuit and the misinformation circulated by local media in the weeks before the lawsuit was filed," the company spokesman wrote. "Tyler is confident that the claim against it is meritless, and we look forward to presenting a vigorous defense."

Alameda County officials from the district attorney's office and public defender's office agree that the short-term fix for Odyssey will have to include more resources for court clerks.

"The sad thing is we purchased the Odyssey system with the view toward becoming more efficient and needing less staff," Presiding Judge Jacobson said from the bench. "This has had the opposite effect, and it's very difficult."