Background of Susan Aguado's case.
Susan was sent to prison unlawfully for 3 years after a series of utterly jawdropping blunders by the Iron County justice system.
In 2004, in case #1, Susan was arrested for felony bailjumping. The case she was still on bail for was dismissed although an issue of restitution pertaining to this case was left lingering for several years as Iron County DA Marty Lipske delayed and then further delayed her hearing on this issue keeping Susan stuck subject to the bail conditions during this time. She pleaded no contest in a plea deal to this charge. In August of 2006, case #1 was DISMISSED with prejudice by Judge Madden.
In case #2, Susan was again charged in 2006 with felony bailjumping. To which again, she plead no contest to in a plea bargain. However, in this case, there was no preliminary examination, no waiver of a prelim, no arraignment, no information filed by DA Lipske and no finding of probable cause. Meaning, any judgment of conviction on this case would be void as the statutory procedures which safeguard Susans rights of due process were not followed.
In case #3, Susan was again charged with felony bailjumping in 2006. This case was also DISMISSED with prejudice by Judge Madden on August 28th, 2006.In both cases #1 and #3, the charges were DISMISSED on August 28th, 2006. Yet, on November 20th, 2006, some four months after they were dismissed, Judgements of Conviction were issued in both cases regardless of their earlier dismissal!
On March 27th, 2007, Susan was sentenced on all three of the above cases. 2 of which were dismissed and 1 which was a null judgement because of failure to follow proper procedure. She was given 5 years probation and an imposed and stayed sentence of 3 years confinement plus 3 years extended supervision on all three cases to run concurrently.
Irregardless of whether the judgement was void in case #2, as the other cases were dismissed only one felony charge remained which means the maximum amount of probation allowed to be handed out is 3 years. So, her probation had expired before she was found to be in violation of it by the DOC which was the basis of their execution of the 3 years of confinement.
In June of 2010, Susan was charged with obstructing an officer which she was later convicted of and sentenced to 9 months jail time on October 27th, 2010, to run concurrently with the sentence imposed in the above 3 cases.
After this conviction, the Department of Corrections found Susan to be in violation of her probation from cases #1, 2 and 3 and executed the 2007 sentence of 3 years confinement and 3 years of extended supervision. She was sent to Taycheedah Correctional Facility to serve her sentence.
Not District Attorney Lipske, nor Judge Madden, nor the DOC, nor her former defense attorney noticed this series of blunders! Susan only discovered the dismissal orders on her cases after being released early from Taycheedah after the discovery of another error which resulted in a sentence modification and early release.
However, she is still serving the remainder of her 3 years of extended supervision. Susan and her attorney, Sam Filippo are moving to vacate the convictions and sentence. Her next hearing on this is to take place on December 20th, 2012 in Iron County.
We are confident her convictions and sentences will be vacated so Susan can begin to put her life back together after getting sent to prison unlawfully.
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