National police group seeks removal of judge who freed cop killer gang member
Tori Richards
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EXCLUSIVE — A nationwide campaign has begun to remove a California judge who refused to sentence a violent gang member to life in prison, leaving him on the streets to murder a sheriff’s deputy, officials said.
Superior Court Judge Cara D. Hutson, who was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, had several chances to take the third striker into custody a year ago for assaulting a woman that he held hostage, tying her up at his home for several days.
JUDGE GAVE FELON WHO KILLED CALIFORNIA DEPUTY LIGHT PRISON SENTENCE INSTEAD OF LIFE
But Hutson reduced the bail of William Shea McKay, 44, after his November 2021 conviction instead of immediately jailing him while awaiting sentencing. Hutson also dismissed several charges that would result in a shortened prison term.
McKay posted bail, did not show up for sentencing, and was eventually brought before the judge and freed again, said Sgt. Becky Smith (ret.), a spokeswoman for the National Police Association.
This proved to be a fatal decision as McKay fatally shot patrol deputy Isaiah Cordero during a traffic stop on Dec. 29. The California Department of Corrections has no record of McKay serving any time after 2019. He was a three-time convicted felon under the state’s three strikes law and should have been in prison for life, Smith said.
“He was a multi-convicted felon and gang member even before November 2021. This judge had the opportunity and obligation to incarcerate and sentence him,” said Smith, who spent 29 years as a Chicago-area police officer. “He should’ve been remanded to the county jail to await sentencing and that’s not what happened. Not only did [Hutson] have the legal duty to do this, she had the moral obligation to incarcerate this dangerous felon.”
The National Police Association has started a petition drive to ask Hutson to remove herself from office. So far, the police advocacy nonprofit organization has received nearly 4,000 signatures in just a few days. The effort will continue “for as long as it takes,” Smith said.
This was started after Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco asked Hutson to step down during an interview with Fox11 News. Cordero, 32, had worked for the department just six years and was excited to be promoted to a motorcycle detail. He was shot by McKay while approaching the felon’s truck for an undisclosed traffic violation.
McKay fled the scene and was killed during a gunfight with police on a freeway about 40 miles south of Los Angeles.
“What she should do is resign. She is proving she has no business being in the position she is,” Bianco said. “With this suspect’s past and the horrendous things he has done … and for her to let him out repeatedly, and then this happened? You can’t tell me this heinous crime is the first time she has done this.”
McKay was also convicted of assault with a firearm and burglary in 1999 and first-degree robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in 2006, 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 as he was free to commit the hostage assault several months later.
“You see this young deputy in his 30s, this is an additional punch in the gut that this crime, this murder, was 100% preventable,” Smith said. “You can’t say that about a lot of crimes. Cara Hutson needs to step down. She should not have the bench. She is a danger not only to Southern California but to the country. Judges like her are endangering people in an already violent society where we are thousands of police officers short [staffed].”
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More than 300 police officers nationwide were shot in the line of duty in 2022, including 228 who died. Fourteen officers died in car crashes, Smith said.
Hutson did not respond to a message left at San Bernardino County Superior Court requesting comment.