After cases dismissed, Hall now asking for jail fees to be paid back

Tristan Hall

A special judge appears to be seriously considering a request from a now former Corbin man, who wants Whitley County to reimburse him $5,920 in jail housing fees that were charged to him while he was incarcerated on charges which were later mostly dismissed.

All but $1,620.64 of those fees were deducted from Tristan Hall’s commissary account while he was an inmate at the Whitley County Detention Center, according to Hall’s motion for an order of reimbursement of incarceration fees.

Starting on May 16, 2013, Hall was incarcerated for 296 days at the Whitley County Detention Center, and spent 274 days on home incarceration in connection to his various cases.

Hall filed a motion dated June 13, 2017, in Whitley Circuit Court seeking to be reimbursed $5,920 in jail housing fees, $80 in booking fees, $2,228.91 in commissary expenses at the jail, $1,980 in telephone charges at the jail, and $3,130 in home incarceration expenses that he paid.

“Absent an order from me, what authority would a jail have to collect housing fees? … To me, the ultimate issue is the legal authority for the entity to do that,” Special Judge Todd Spalding noted during a court hearing Friday morning in Whitley Circuit Court. “This is a bit of a novel concept to me.”

As far as the other claims Hall is asking for, Spalding noted that he wasn’t sure those “have merit.”

“The statute allows collection of those fees while incarcerated,” attorney Jason Williams, who was representing the fiscal court and detention center, told the judge.

Hall, who is acting as his own attorney in the matter, contends that the case Williams is citing was an unpublished opinion, which is a non-binding precedent.

Spalding noted that in another jurisdiction, a county wanted him to order a man to pay $5,000 in housing expenses while he was incarcerated pending trial in a murder case.

The man was convicted of a lesser offense, reckless homicide, and received the minimum sentence of one year in prison. Spalding ordered him to pay $1,000 in housing fees.

Spalding brought up another point inquiring about whether officials would have to determine whether an inmate was indigent before charging the fee.

In terms of money, Spalding added that while Hall’s family may have money, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he does.

Spalding also noted during the hearing that Hall “ended up being exonerated on every case that appeared before me.”

Hall also contended during the hearing that if you apply a broader statute of allowing a county to automatically collect jail housing fees from inmates, then a county facing a financial crunch could just round up a bunch of citizens for a few days and collect $20 each from them.

Spalding noted the fallacy of Hall’s argument is that this assumes the jail could house people for $20 per day when the figure is closer to $40 per day in the county where he lives.

Spalding gave Williams 10 days to file a response to Hall’s filing late Thursday afternoon.

After that, Spalding said, “I will take a look at what both of you have.”

Federal court lawsuit

In late December 2016, Hall filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the City of Williamsburg, Police Chief Wayne Bird, Whitley County Commonwealth’s Attorney Allen Trimble, Whitley County Attorney Bob Hammons, Laurel County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, who served as a special prosecutor in some of Hall’s cases, former Kentucky State Police Detective Richie Baxter, USAA Casualty Insurance Company, USAA General Indemnity Company, Veracity Research Company and James Potter Wilder Jr.

On April 13, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves dismissed Wilder, Veracity Research Company, USAA General Indemnity Company and USAA Casualty Insurance Company as defendants in the lawsuit as part of an agreed order of dismissal.

On May 24, Reeves dismissed Trimble, Hammons, Steele and Baxter as defendants in the lawsuit.

The City of Williamsburg and Bird also currently have a motion to dismiss the lawsuit pending.

Hall said Friday that he plans to appeal the dismissal of the federal court lawsuit.

Hall said he also plans to file to have the ruling dismissed or reconsidered because of misrepresentation or fraud.

Hall added that he also most likely would start filing bar complaints against the prosecutors involved in his case.

Hall said that his family has spent $300,000 in connection with his legal defense and he has only been offered a $1,000 settlement to the federal court lawsuit.

Hall said he has just asked for money to cover the cost of counseling for the next year, $10,000, and for help clearing his name.

“Everything is expugnable in my record except for the hindering charge,” Hall said. “That is literally all I requested.”

Hall’s attorneys in the federal court lawsuit have withdrawn as his legal counsel and he is currently representing himself.

Background

Hall’s legal saga began on Jan. 10, 2013, when an unknown individual using the pseudonym “Serious as a Heart Attack” posted on the Topix internet site that they would pay someone $5,000 cash for the murder and concealment of Melissa Jones body.
On May 7, 2013, Time Warner identified Hall as the subscriber to the IP address from which the message was posted.

Hall was later indicted for criminal solicitation to commit murder in connection with the case.

In 2015, Hall was indicted for retaliating against a participant in the legal process. The victim was Trimble, who had been prosecuting Hall in the solicitation to commit murder case.

Hall was also indicted in 2015 on a fraudulent insurance act charge.

However in late 2015 and early 2016, Steele dropped charges in all these cases due to insufficient evidence to move forward in the cases. Hall has denied any wrongdoing in the cases.

In November 2016, Hall pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution or apprehension in connection to a June 24, 2014, incident at his grandmother’s home where he was staying while on house arrest.

On that day, Williamsburg police went to Hall’s grandmother’s residence with a search warrant and an arrest warrant in connection with another case.

When Williamsburg Police Chief Bird asked Hall where his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Angela Reeves, was, Hall replied that he hadn’t seen her in three to six months, but police found her hiding in one of the bedroom closets inside the home.

Hall maintains that he didn’t know police had an arrest warrant for Reeves at the time he responded to Bird’s question and that he had not been read his constitutional rights at that point.

In addition to pleading guilty in that case, Hall also pleaded guilty to contempt of court for allegedly contacting Hammons, who was the prosecutor in the hindering prosecution case, after a judge told him to have no contact with Hammons.

Hall received a combined 18-month jail sentence in the case that was conditionally discharged on the condition he have no further run-ins with the law over the next year.

Hall is currently appealing in the hindering prosecution or apprehension case.