Renee Roissier Miller

Status hearings in the cases against confessed murderer Kenneth Erick Waldrop and his friend Jonathan Michael Brown, charged as an accessory to the crime, were held in Monroe County Criminal Court on Monday, January 25th.

To give you an idea of how miserable it is to attend one of these hearings here is a bit of background. All defendants, counsel and interested parties are notified that the proceedings begin at 9am. Starting sometime after that hour the day’s cases are called in an order unknown to everyone but the judge and his clerk. Interested parties have no choice but to sit there hour after hour while the judge repeats his instructions to a seemingly endless line of suspects who wish to plead guilty to their charges. Those who are not pleading guilty receive somewhat different instructions and hearing or trial dates are set.

The courtroom begins the day quite full and then the crowd is whittled down as cases are handled. The defendants that are currently held in the county jail are brought over to the court house shackled in pairs and dressed in striped black and white prison garb. Let me assure you that it is not a pretty sight. The family and friends of most of the defendants are only slightly more presentable.

Once called, the hearings for Waldrop and Brown took only a few minutes each and the defendants did not speak. The first of these cases was called at around 10:15am the other came after the lunch break, at approximately 2pm. Trial date for the case against Kenneth Erick Waldrop is set for Tuesday, September 21st with Monday, September 20th scheduled for any pre-trial pleas or motions. Jonathan Michael Brown will have a status hearing on his current charges on February 22nd.

A truly miserable day but according to everyone in the victim’s rights business this is a huge improvement over the way things were handled in the past. Not so long ago the victims’ family was not even kept informed of the legal proceedings. We are grateful for the small favor of at least knowing how the case is proceeding.