Judgment day: Inside push to oust judge who let cop killer go free
Tori Richards
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is on a mission.
Two weeks have passed since one of his deputies, Isaiah Cordero, was gunned down by a gang member during a traffic stop 40 miles south of Los Angeles. It’s taken this long for Bianco to unravel the killer’s tangled past of repeated breaks given by Superior Court Judge Cara Hutson, leaving him on the streets instead of prison for life, Bianco says.
NATIONAL POLICE GROUP SEEKS OUSTER OF JUDGE WHO FREED COP KILLER GANG MEMBER
The sheriff was devastated by what he uncovered and is now determined see Hutson removed from office for the safety of the community, he said.
“This isn’t isolated for her. This guy … is an obvious career criminal, multiple violent convictions, and she lets him go and he kills a cop,” Bianco told the Washington Examiner. “If she is going to do something like that, there are many, many more [incidents from Hutson], we just haven’t heard about it.”
William Shae McKay, 44, was a third striker, which means he had been convicted of three violent felonies and should be sentenced to life in prison, according to a 1994 law that was passed with the approval of 72% of voters.
Instead, he opened fire on Bianco during a Dec. 29 traffic stop, then led police on a high-speed freeway chase before dying in a gun battle.
McKay had been in and out of prison most of his life and would have been behind bars that day if it wasn’t for the state’s disintegrating judicial system that now rewards criminals and punishes the public, Bianco said.
“Judge Hutson is part of a bigger problem of just a complete lack of the enforcement of consequence for criminals,” he said. “It’s always somebody else’s fault. There is no consequence for criminal behavior.”
As a result, he has demanded that Hutson step down, stating his position during numerous media interviews. The National Police Association has joined Bianco’s cause, circulating a nationwide petition among citizens seeking Hutson’s ouster.
Bianco’s primary problem with Hutson is her refusal to follow the three strikes law. Rather than immediately taking McKay into custody following his third violent conviction on Nov. 8, 2021, for false imprisonment and assault, she lowered McKay’s bail to $500,000, which he posted on March 23, 2022, according to media reports.
That case involved the brutal kidnapping of a woman whom McKay lured to his home, then bound and gagged with duct tape before dragging her throughout the home while beating her. She managed to escape after three days.
Hutson dismissed the most serious charge, kidnapping, saying that the victim was not moved a substantial distance. However, state law does not specify a distance required to file such a charge.
While out on bail last year, McKay was arrested on a narcotics charge and Hutson gave him a bail amount of $50,000, which he posted, Bianco said.
McKay had a court date of Oct. 21, 2022, for the third strike sentencing but he never showed up. He also didn’t appear on Dec. 22 for the drug case in front of Hutson. At that point, Hutson should have issued a bench warrant for McKay’s arrest, and he should have been charged with the crime of failing to appear, Bianco said.
Given McKay’s criminal history, it’s unclear why Hutson wanted to give him a break, Bianco added.
Other felonies in his past include assault with a firearm and burglary in 1999, involving another police chase, and first-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in 2006 for attacking a sleeping couple in their home, according to the California Department of Corrections.
In March 2021, McKay was involved in a police chase that ended when he stabbed a police dog. The adjudication of that case is unclear, but he was free to commit the hostage assault several months later.
McKay had two additional cases involving gun possession in 2021, but both were dismissed, the Desert Sun reported.
One thing is undisputed — if Hutson had followed the will of the voters and state law, Cordero would be alive today, Bianco said.
“He was facing 25 [years] to life [in prison]. What always happens in other cases, is this person is now remanded into custody with no bail and come back shortly after that for sentencing,” Bianco said.
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Hutson did not respond to a request for comment on this story.