Why was gunman free?

A judge says he couldn't hold Michael Phillips without bail.

By COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writer
Published August 17, 2007

Circuit Judge Manuel Lopez, left, reads a statement Thursday afternoon saying that he is deeply saddened by the death of Hillsborough sheriff Sgt. Ronald Harrison.
	[Melissa Lyttle | Times]

TAMPA - In a rare move for a jurist, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Manuel Lopez defended on Thursday his decision to allow a man with at least 20 arrests to get out of jail.

That man, 24-year-old Michael Allen Phillips, killed a respected sheriff's sergeant early Wednesday before a SWAT unit killed him.

Lopez, a judge since 1997, said he was deeply saddened by the death of Sgt. Ronald Harrison. He expressed sympathy for the veteran deputy's family.

Standing outside the courthouse in a blazer instead of a black robe, the judge made a brief but firm statement.

"The law does not allow judges in Hillsborough County or the state of Florida to hold defendants without bond except in very narrow circumstances," Lopez said. "This was not one of those circumstances."

He declined to answer questions.

"There's nothing I can add to the tragedy that would help the citizens of Hillsborough County understand it," he explained.

In the aftermath of Wednesday's shooting, people were asking why Phillips, who had been in and of jail since age 12, was not behind bars after committing several felonies in the past year.

Just last month, the mother of Phillips' 3-year-old son told a deputy that he choked her and threatened to kill her. Rosa Bradley, who had reported Phillips' behavior previously but often failed to cooperate with prosecutors, said she was in fear for her life after he punched her and bit her ear.

The deputy wrote a lengthy report but did not arrest Phillips. The case was forwarded to the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office to determine if charges should be filed, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said prosecutors had only recently received the case and had not made a decision.

Misdemeanor arrests make up the bulk of Phillips' rap sheet. Prosecutors were forced to drop multiple domestic battery charges when the victims refused to cooperate.

Two months ago, they tried unsuccessfully to keep Phillips behind bars.

He had been in jail since February with a revoked bail, accused of attacking a man and a truck with a hard-toothed rake while awaiting trial on charges stemming from a chase with law enforcement officials.

A transcript provided new details Thursday about Phillips' June 12 bail hearing.

His attorney, John J. Rogers, said Phillips acted in self-defense in the rake case. After the arrest last September for fleeing, Rogers said, his client had changed his life. He was working on a case plan, fighting to keep custody of his son. He was going to church and had a job waiting for him.

Assistant State Attorney Ben Stechschulte objected to Phillips' release based on his criminal history. He said the state was seeking an enhanced penalty for Phillips because he had been arrested after doing prison time.

"He's had multiple, multiple acts of violence," the prosecutor said. "He's had multiple traffic incidents, and this individual has shown a blatant disregard for law enforcement and to its authority."

Without explanation, Lopez set bail at $30,000. Phillips left jail eight days later.

Lopez and prosecutors have tangled before. In January, over the objections of the State Attorney's Office, the judge released Richard Morse Jr. on his own recognizance on a probation violation charge after prosecutors couldn't find a witness needed to charge Morse with additional crimes.

Less than 48 hours later, deputies found a man dead in Gibsonton. They said Morse, 18, killed him.

Bondi would not discuss the case. More details on that bail hearing were unavailable Thursday.

The Phillips case is not the first time Lopez has come under public scrutiny during his 28-year legal career as prosecutor, private practitioner, public defender and county and circuit judge.

During his stint as chief assistant to Public Defender Julianne Holt in the mid 1990s, Lopez was criticized by a grand jury for representing a family friend for 14 months even though the woman was not indigent and Holt's office was never appointed to her case.

Lopez said the defendant had serious mental and emotional problems and needed help. The Florida Bar found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Local defense attorneys and fellow judges voiced support on Thursday for Lopez, describing him as a fair, tough judge who listens to all sides and the specific facts of a case before making decisions.

While they sympathized with Harrison's family, legal experts said few crimes or arrest histories are severe enough to warrant keeping a defendant in jail without chance for release. Judges make hundreds of similar calls a day, most of which don't end so terribly.

"Maybe this particular guy shouldn't have been on bond, but that's always easier said when a tragedy occurs," attorney Brian Gonzalez said. "I don't think Lopez does anything on a whim, ever."

Stetson University College of Law professor Charles Rose said Lopez couldn't have predicted Phillips' escalation in crime.

"That's more of a burden than you can fairly place on anybody in the system," Rose said.

Phillips' record indicated that he "was a small-time hoodlum," the professor said. "From the judge's perspective, he looks like a thug but not a dangerous thug."

During his final jail stint, Phillips didn't win many fans.

From February to June, he lived in a pod at Falkenburg Road Jail with about 60 inmates, including W.D. Glenn.

The two men participated in a jail-run domestic violence program that included a parenting class led by a black woman, Glenn said.

"This guy was so prejudiced all the black guys got p----- off," Glenn said, "and she put him out of the class."

New details emerged Thursday about one of Phillips' earliest arrests in Volusia County, his birthplace.

In 1997, at age 14, he was one of four teens who deputies said robbed a Daytona Beach house while two teenage girls at home alone hid in a nearby bedroom.

Volusia County sheriff's deputies charged Phillips with felony armed burglary and grand theft, accusing him and the others of stealing $12,000 worth of jewelry, firearms and personal belongings.

Just as Sgt. Harrison's family gathered Thursday to plan his funeral, visitors in another part of the county grieved for Phillips.

They left flowers and stuffed animals in a small shrine on the porch of 1707 Village Court in Brandon, where Phillips lived with his mother and was killed as she wailed outside in her pajamas.

Family members turned away a reporter, saying it was too early to speak about Phillips.

But they handed out a handwritten message from Regina Van Amburg, Phillips' mother.

She wrote:

"Michael's entire family would like to express our sympathy for the officer and his family. This is a tragedy that both families' friends and the community are dealing with. No one will ever know why things happened the way they did but with the help from GOD we will all join together and in time heal some of the pain from the loss we all (are) suffering.

Regina Van Amburg

Michael's mother"

Times staff writers Rebecca Catalanello, John Martin, Ben Montgomery, S.I. Rosenbaum and Janet Zink contributed to this report. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at cjenkins@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3337.

[Last modified August 16, 2007, 23:54:48]