Ivan Bates: On law, order, people, process and prosecution in Baltimore City

Are the streets of Baltimore City safer than they were a decade ago? Peace and progress in our city continues to be a daily effort for Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, who joins Nestor at Faidley’s at Lexington Market to discuss youth crime, accountability and the challenges of the juvenile system while getting the repeat offenders off the street to make the city safer.

Ivan Bates, Baltimore City’s State’s Attorney, discussed his office’s progress and strategies in combating crime. He highlighted the rebuilding of the State’s Attorney’s Office, increasing staff from 300 to 400, and prosecutors from 140 to 200. Bates noted the removal of 4,000 violent repeat offenders and 1,000 individuals from murder and attempted murder cases. He emphasized better training, infrastructure, and collaboration with the police. Bates also addressed youth crime, the need for accountability, and the challenges of the juvenile justice system. He stressed the importance of fairness, community trust, and the role of the Supreme Court in voting rights.

• [ ] Continue coordinating with the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) to hold young people accountable and improve case processing between police arrests and prosecutor involvement (work to align DJS decisions with prosecution goals).
• [ ] Expand and refer arrested youth into longer-term programming and services (six months to 18 months where needed) to change behavior rather than short 90-day programs.
• [ ] Continue sending prosecutors to specialized homicide and other training programs around the country to improve trial skills and specialty knowledge for violent-crime prosecution.
• [ ] Ensure the Victim-Witness Division conducts outreach to victims on day one of a case and maintain expanded victim-witness advocacy services (keep and refine the ‘day one’ outreach process).
• [ ] Work with Baltimore Police Department to ensure evidence is gathered properly and presentable to grand juries (improve police-prosecutor coordination and evidence quality for indictments).

Introduction and Setting the Stage

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, WNST 1570 AM, and mentions the location at Lexington Market.
• Nestor highlights the crab derby at Fayette Lee’s and the Maryland lottery’s involvement.
• Nestor expresses gratitude to Ivan Bates for agreeing to the interview despite his busy schedule.
• Ivan Bates thanks Nestor for the opportunity and reflects on the support he received when no one knew him four and a half years ago.

Rebuilding the State’s Attorney’s Office

• Ivan Bates discusses the rebuilding of the State’s Attorney’s Office, increasing the staff from 300 to 400 people, and the number of prosecutors from 140 to 200.
• Bates mentions the focus on removing violent repeat offenders, with the office removing about 4000 out of 6000 such individuals.
• Bates highlights the importance of better-trained prosecutors, improved infrastructure, and a better working relationship with the Baltimore Police Department.
• Bates emphasizes the collaborative effort among the State’s Attorney’s Office, police, and violence interrupters in reducing the murder rate.

Addressing Youth Crime and Community Trust

• Nestor Aparicio and Ivan Bates discuss the issue of youth crime and the impact on community trust.
• Bates explains the role of the Department of Juvenile Services in handling juvenile cases and the challenges in holding young people accountable.
• Bates mentions the need for more services for young people and the importance of programming and support to change their behavior.
• Bates discusses the challenges of balancing public safety with the need for rehabilitation and accountability for young offenders.

Dealing with Quality of Life Crimes and Community Programs

• Nestor and Bates discuss issues like squeegee people and dirt bikes, which are unique to Baltimore.
• Bates explains the citation docket system for handling dirt bike crimes and the community service programs available.
• Bates mentions the squeegee collaborative program aimed at providing jobs and opportunities for young people.
• Bates emphasizes the importance of addressing these issues to improve community safety and trust.

Organizational Structure and Departmental Changes

• Bates provides an overview of the organizational structure of the State’s Attorney’s Office, including key deputies and divisions.
• Bates highlights the changes in the way people respond to each other and the internal support systems in place.
• Bates discusses the importance of supporting support staff and prosecutors to prevent burnout and ensure effective case management.
• Bates mentions the efforts to improve communication with victims and witnesses through the victim witness division.

Public Trust and Fairness in the Criminal Justice System

• Nestor and Bates discuss the importance of public trust in the criminal justice system and the role of the State’s Attorney’s Office in maintaining that trust.
• Bates emphasizes the need for a fair system where all parts of the system do their job properly.
• Bates explains the role of the grand jury in ensuring that cases are indicted only when there is sufficient evidence.
• Bates discusses recent legislative changes, like the PACE Act and the Second Chance Act, aimed at ensuring fairness in the criminal justice system.

Personal Reflections and Future Plans

• Nestor asks Bates about his personal reflections on his role as State’s Attorney and his future plans.
• Bates expresses gratitude for the opportunity to serve and emphasizes the importance of understanding both sides of the law.
• Bates discusses the challenges of dealing with violent offenders and the need for a comprehensive approach to public safety.
• Bates mentions his commitment to continuing the work of holding people accountable and improving community safety.

Addressing National and Local Political Issues

• Nestor and Bates discuss the broader political context, including issues like voting rights and the Supreme Court’s decisions.
• Bates expresses concern about the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions on voting rights and the importance of ensuring every voice is heard.
• Bates emphasizes the need for bipartisan cooperation and working with federal and state partners to address public safety issues.
• Bates highlights the importance of community engagement and the role of elected officials in maintaining public trust and accountability.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Baltimore City, Ivan Bates, law and order, prosecution, violent repeat offenders, State’s Attorney’s Office, youth crime, community safety, juvenile system, accountability, public trust, Supreme Court, Voting Rights Act, gangs, community services.

8

SPEAKERS

Ivan Bates, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 tassel, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are positively here in the center of Baltimore. We’re at Lexington market. I have a beautiful view of pocket Street. It is the crab derby. We’re at Lexington market, at Fayette Lee’s. They’ve been doing the crab Derby here for about 50 years. All of my crab cake tour. Stuff brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Four new scratch offs giveaway in the Maryland treasures. And this here, of course, one of the treasures. We’re going to be at fishmonger’s daughter next Thursday, talking about their newest location in Catonsville. And they’re so proud, and they should be. I’ve been trying to get this guy out, but he’s been really busy. He is the state’s attorney for Baltimore City, Ivan Bates, our defending champion, who, man, back when you run a campaign trail, you reached me with an email and said you won’t come out. We did the show down the street Tony’s place. And I see you around town. I see you at maritime. I see you doing morning network things, but I know you’re busy. Man, you know, man, like, get you in here. Was a couple months working on it, but I’m glad to have you down here, and I’m glad I brought you in. Where had you wear a funny hat already?

Ivan Bates  01:07

Yeah, yeah. I’ve

Nestor Aparicio  01:08

8

already embarrassed the states

Nestor Aparicio  01:09

you

Ivan Bates  01:09

have, you have, Hey, how are you?

Nestor Aparicio  01:11

I’m good man. Good to see

8

Ivan Bates  01:12

good to see you. Good to see you. Well, first of all, I just want to thank you for having me. Thank you for being patient and but most important, I want to thank you for giving me that opportunity. What, four, four and a half years ago, nobody knew me. You had the opportunity. Let me talk, let me speak, and trying to tell people what my message was. And so I always will think back when no one knows you, and you give someone that opportunity that opens the door, and I want to thank

Nestor Aparicio  01:36

you. Well, I’ll tell you this, I’m having political candidates on and this, if you’re watching, Ivan, you want to come on the show in a city in the county? I can’t do everybody everywhere, but once I have someone at Carson cabinets, several people reach that they want to be on. I had in your role in the county. You know, I Scott Shellenberger has been on, but I will have him on. I had Sarah David on so now I’m gonna have Lauren Lipscomb, so like I am equal opportunity. Not only that, just with the FCC, equal time is a thing.

Ivan Bates  02:09

It is. So

Nestor Aparicio  02:10

8

when you reach to me, I’m like, listen, anybody that wants to come on and use my time after 35 years of doing this, living here, owning in the county, living in the city, to make the city better. I always say, why you politicians on Well, if we’re not talking about change and holding people accountable, and this is my chance to hold you accountable,

Nestor Aparicio  02:30

in

Nestor Aparicio  02:30

regard to what you do, you’re held accountable. You have people come up here in the middle of the market holding you accountable. Recap these four years for you and what you feel like you’ve done because the mayor, I mean, look murders down, right? Yeah, we got some happy stories to tell here. We do have a tough job to do. Man,

Ivan Bates  02:48

we do. You know, look, the first thing I did when I ran is I had to rebuild the State’s Attorney’s Office. We’ve done a great job. We went from about 300 people, 140 prosecutors, to now 400 people, 200 prosecutors. And that was important things that people don’t realize we had the budget. We just didn’t have the people. Now that we’ve been able to do that, now you begin to see really what we what we’re doing. We said we’ve stepped what we focused and stepped in January 3, 2023, that there were about 6000 violent repeat offenders. These are the people who are carrying the guns. These are people doing the shooting. Our office has removed about 4000 of those individuals off the street. You know, we’ve probably taken almost 1000 individuals from attempt murders and murders off the streets, and they’re doing almost life to probably from 60 to life. So they’re gone for a significant amount of time. Then we probably

8

Nestor Aparicio  03:37

wasn’t happy before. I

Ivan Bates  03:39

think a lot of there’s a couple things. One some of the policies that were in the State’s Attorney’s Office, when you have the former State’s Attorney, they didn’t have a lot of experience, so they were trying to micromanage the prosecutors. I think that’s something was really difficult. We don’t micromanage. We allow our prosecutors do their jobs. However, I do have an opportunity myself or my deputy, to have an eyeball on what the offers are, what’s going on with those cases. So my experience allows me to understand and process things in a way that if it looks wrong, we try to correct it a little more quickly. We also have better trained prosecutors. We send them to homicide trainings around the country. We have more support staff for them. Our infrastructure we had to rebuild to make sure that our prosecutors received what they needed. We had a better working relationship with Baltimore Police Department than we’ve ever had before, making sure that we’re doing those things and we are focused on the right people. We’ve removed, like I said, 4000 out of 6000 but people don’t realize only a small group of individuals are pulling triggers, and if most of those individuals that we’re finding are now in jail, then, of course, you’re going to see the murder rate drop. So we’ve done our part. We continue to work with the police. They’ve done their part, even the violence interrupters, they’re trying to do their part as well. It’s a collaborative effort. The biggest thing that I would say was really missing was the State’s Attorney’s Office being part of the team, the team. Team was working, but they all have to work together now. We work together. And the thing that I must really think the men and women of State’s Attorney’s office do a phenomenal job. I get so much credit, but without a doubt, I would not even be here to talk about any success without the hard work of the men and women of Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office. They’re in court, they’re in trial. They’re there doing the hard work. They’re interviewing witnesses, victims, our victim, witness, you know, division, we’ve expanded that. We now are able to service more witnesses and victims to make them feel comfortable. So when they testify, if we need to move them, move their family, we can, we can keep them safe. And people now are wanting to really do the right thing. So the end of the day, the community, we have to thank because they are now. They bought in. We’re all working together because we can see how positive in terms of a negative situation can be, in terms of getting the violent repeat offenders off the streets.

Nestor Aparicio  05:54

I think so much is made of youth crime and the notion, I mean, I look, I lived down here 19 years. Knock on. Well, I never had anything that felt like crime happened to me. Only Takes One incident 10 seconds. Turn your back, the carjacking thing, all of those things that would be attributed to underage youth. And these reasons why people in Harford County or Carroll County say, Well, I’m not coming down to go to a ball game. I’m not coming to city when something happens that is youth oriented. What would your message be to people about what happens to that 14, 1516, year old child, right? Like, and I think that that’s where this thing really gets swept up in the dust around you and the mayor, racism, prosecution, what all of the stereotypes that would go into for that person to say, I am afraid of someone breaking the law and not being held accountable because your office wouldn’t do that, or we won’t put that person in jail or in a pro but as a victim of crime, I just want to see justice right, like, yeah, and we want to keep the crime up. We don’t want the crime that happens, but once it happens, that’s when you get involved.

Ivan Bates  07:11

8

It is, it is when you get involved. Unfortunately, one of the things that people don’t really don’t understand is the laws are different. The laws have changed dramatically, and where the prosecutors used to be the ones that really were able to try to figure out and steer how we’re going to hold young people accountable. That was removed from the State’s Attorney’s Office, the department Juvenile Services, DJs secretary, Betsy Talentino, they’re the ones who make those decisions once the police make an arrest, DJs makes a decision what they’re going to do with the case. We may or we may not get the case any and all felonies my office going to receive, but some of those quality of life crimes and things like that, we don’t always receive. And so it’s been a little more difficult. 10

Nestor Aparicio  07:51

year old car Jacks me on the way out of here. You might never see that

Ivan Bates  07:54

well, the ones who are carjacking with the gun and makes the legal definition, we will get that. But if there’s a 14 year old who’s also in the car, they pick them up, up the street, and they, you know, realize the car was stolen. We may never see that young person, but the one doing the car jack, and we would see them,

Nestor Aparicio  08:12

okay.

8

Ivan Bates  08:13

Now

Nestor Aparicio  08:14

that’s

Ivan Bates  08:14

because you have the violence. You have to use the gun taken by force, probably already in the car. They pull you out the car that would be viewed as the car jack, and they have a knife, have a

Nestor Aparicio  08:24

8

my phone off the street and running with it on a we probably

Ivan Bates  08:28

may never see that case, because it may be an unarmed ride. And

Nestor Aparicio  08:31

that’s a hell of a crime, even when you know, like, I mean, I traveled through South America, that’s the big crime.

Ivan Bates  08:35

It is.

8

Nestor Aparicio  08:35

South America, put your phone away. Put your phone away, yeah, because steal the phone on, get under the bank account on the front right, like I heard that in South America everywhere I went. And I thought I walked through New York City two days ago. It’s happening here that shows up in your but like that, that is like, other than something physical happening to you. You lose your phone,

Ivan Bates  08:58

yeah,

Nestor Aparicio  08:58

you cannot get on the train to come home. You’re not You’re not doing anything. So I would just think that there’s a different type of crime that’s happening than maybe even what I experienced 15 or 20 years ago living in the city,

Ivan Bates  09:10

8

right? 1,000% also, we need to have more services for the young people and so, you know, the juvenile system is very complicated. It’s convoluted. You know, I’ve been a big proponent, myself and every other prosecutor in the state, we are big proponents of holding young people accountable. The law has changed. Well, we’ll go ahead and work and deal with that however. You know, now young people with guns, you know, to be honest, I’m a little worried about their safety, because we’ve made a little easier for young people in terms of not being held accountable. You know the law used to be that if a young person had a handgun, they would automatically be adjudicated in the adult system. Now they automatically go through the juvenile system. Doesn’t matter.

Nestor Aparicio  09:50

It’s

Nestor Aparicio  09:51

a 13 year old, 1415, year old

Ivan Bates  09:53

kid, 15, 1617, year old kid. Doesn’t matter if your first time with the gun or your eighth time with the gun. So there we hopefully can. Maybe go back and try to tweak the law a little bit, but we’re going to see what happens. Our big concern isn’t about locking up people young kids. It’s about the accountability and keeping the community safe. So we’re really trying to force as many young people into programming and services as possible to change their actions and behavior. However, one of the things we do understand is that this needs to happen. A program shouldn’t be no 90 days. Young people need, sometimes six months, 18 months a year, to have real intensive programming. I know Secretary Tolentino is trying to make a lot of changes over there DJs. So, you know, it’s very difficult. It’s very for the public. They don’t want to say we’re going to take time. The public wants it right now, because they need to feel safe right now. That’s why we are working the State’s Attorney’s Office, working with everybody we can to make sure that the police are making those stops, making those arrests, that we’re going to work with DJs to hold the young people accountable, and hopefully the young people get the service they need to stop that behavior,

8

Nestor Aparicio  11:03

I would say nuisance, things quality of life, things for the city, for me. I just came back from Medellin,

Ivan Bates  11:11

okay,

Nestor Aparicio  11:12

Columbia, first place I went where I saw squeegee people. They weren’t really boys, they were men, and it was sort of normal, but there was only one on every corner. It wasn’t like a it wasn’t a youth looking thing. It was more like selling water. You know what I mean? And I’m in South America, I’ve never been anywhere else where anybody’s jumped on the hood of my car with a squeegee. And I’ve driven through LA Detroit, yeah, I’ve been all over this country. That is a unique, you know thing, I think, to Baltimore, and also the dirt bikes. And I did see dirt bikes in South America. Yeah, it was the first time I saw groups of dirt bikes on city streets. That was in Santiago, Chile. I saw that it wasn’t as sort of treacherous, is what I experienced living at the inner arbor. These are things that I don’t live in the city anymore, but I’m on Twitter on a Sunday afternoon, yeah, and I’ll never understand the dirt bike thing, and that’s something that lives and eats and breathes in your space every day, because they pass everyone everywhere, right? I mean, so these are just city things that I’m addressing as now a county resident who loves the city, but I don’t miss not being in a place where the dirt bikes are rolling by every Sunday.

Ivan Bates  12:33

8

And, you know, I hear that time and time again. I hear, look, I have a good friend that’s going to leave the city and move to the county because of the dirt bikes. You know, I tell people this my office. When the police make an arrest or they write a citation, we get involved. Until that moment, we don’t get involved. You know, I think that the dirt bike and how that’s handled, that’s something the mayor looks at the something the mayor decides it works with the police to make decide how they’re going to handle that, but we’re here to support in any way we can. But it’s something that I hear time and time again, the residents are upset with remember,

Nestor Aparicio  13:08

is it a crime? Oh, it

Ivan Bates  13:10

is a crime. So what we’ve done is we formed a citation docket so the police would need to make an arrest. They write a citation that young person, that older person, whoever it is, on that dirt bike, then comes to court. When they come to court, we’re just saying, Look, you’re going to give us at least five hours community service, and we’re going to direct you to this program called b3 60, so you can ride your dirt bike, but in the lawful manner, in a lawful location, a lawful place, you can learn how to fix it, do whatever you want to. So, you know, we’re working with the

Nestor Aparicio  13:39

police. If you’re out squeegee and you’re trying to make money, right, you’re trying to rob people,

8

Ivan Bates  13:44

exactly

Nestor Aparicio  13:45

right. So like, whatever, diversionary, whatever the program would be called jobs opportunities,

Ivan Bates  13:50

and I know that they do have a program. I know the mayor has a program, squeegee collaborative that was focused on that, and there’s some people just don’t want to move on. And so I think now we have to make sure and understand how we’re going to deal with the young people and other people that don’t want to move on. And that’s where we are now.

Nestor Aparicio  14:08

8

Ivan Bates is our guest. We’re here at fayley’s election tomorrow. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery and GBMC. And you know, I got my my chart back last week, so I need to make some lifestyle adjustments to my eating. So I’m I want those Western fries over there, but I’m not. I’m not gonna No french fries today. I’m gonna keep it lean and mean and go with the salad here with Ivan Bates, also our friends at foreign and Dermer. They are the comfort guys. So what do you your vision of the job when you sat with me a couple of years ago to what you do on a day by day basis in managing a massive department, just top down. Tell me what your department, your office, looks like, and how it looks different than maybe it did three or four years

Nestor Aparicio  14:52

ago.

Ivan Bates  14:52

Well, yeah. Well, look, first of all, look, I’m blessed to be the state’s attorney, and then you have deputies. So I have a number of deputies that work for me. Um. Um, you know, I have a woman named Catherine Flynn, former defense attorney. She does some of the work dealing with the, the IT work. She looks at, deals with, you know, our economic crime division. Then we also have James Bentley, my comms director, and everything. So he’s here right now, yep, and so he’s, he’s out there working with us. Then we also have Tom Donnelly that my deputy, and now he’s about to leave retire, and we have someone coming in, Jesse Halverson, deals with violent crime. Then we have Greg Solomon, Deputy Solomon, she’s been there 20 some odd years, 30, almost 30 years of prosecutor. She does specialty courts, misdemeanor courts, and so, you know, we’ve been able to use that. We have Stu Beckham, our HR director, and so we have a brother named Roland Selby, who’s also now one of the executives with that deals with every putting everything together. So we have a great team, and every single one of them supervises our organizations. For instance, the violent crime division, you have homicide, you have guns and drugs, you have the special SVU, sex, violence, Miu major investigation unit. We have GED where they’re doing basically an individual gets shot but doesn’t die, so attempt murders in cases like that. That’s just right there. On the violent crime side, we deal post convictions, meaning people been convicted or trying to overturn their conviction. We have a division that also looks at wrongly accused individuals and deals with some of the other things, such as a Second Chance Act. And then we also have an other divisions that now will be deputy Solomon will look at misdemeanor District Court, er court. Mean, you know specialty courts, the citation docket, court, we have the central booking, and individuals are arrested, and they have to go to Central booking, all of them working together. And once again, you have the support staff dealing with the HR side. So it’s been a really great opportunity, one we’ve changed the way people respond to each other, react to each other. We’ve done things internally. For instance, we have a state’s attorney advisory council so that all the workers have someone who represents them. We have these meetings once every other month. We can talk about what’s going on. We try to make sure that we really support our support staff, to thank them for that work that they do. We try to make sure when our prosecutors are in trial, and they’ve been in trial, say for a week, that they’re able to take some time to catch their breath. We try to figure out what’s going on with their case loads so they’re not overborne. Well, I

Nestor Aparicio  17:32

was going to say that that’s the thing for me, that when you sat with me, and I don’t have the transcript, but my recollection was just the burnout of so many people in the department, and the case overload and how hard it is to prosecute a murder case or to prosecute a carjacking case or prosecute things that you have video. I mean, just all, I mean, I’m trying to get the president united states prosecuted. And, you know, we got all of this evidence. Yeah, we can’t figure out how to put it together here. That’s what your office is trying to do every day, is basically take a victim, and that would be someone like me who is not perpetrated a crime, and make that person who’s seeking justice find it. And I think that’s that was something four years ago that you were finding good people in your department, was something that you were concerned about, and something that you were concerned that the previous regime had a hard time keeping good people, because it’s a tough job, it

8

Ivan Bates  18:34

is. And once again, you know, we got almost 100 more people we’ve added, and at least 6070, attorneys that we’ve added, and we’re training them. We send a lot of people to trainings around the country, because you have to learn the job and you have to learn that specialty. So, you know, look, the number one thing is, I would say, for everybody I understand our office is back. Our office has great people who are working hard. I knew our office was back when I saw other offices raiding our office, for some of our people, when that happens, look, we can’t pay everybody, sort of like the Ravens. Ravens can’t pay everybody. You got to pay a few select stars, and people don’t price themselves out the market. But we’ve been really blessed to be able to have some great people doing some great work that truly care. One of the things that we did a lot differently, we have a victim witness division. Hired a woman named Amanda Grantham to come run that agency, that part of our agency, and now our almost 30 victim witness advocates that reach out. So when you’re a victim, we’re trying to connect with you day one instead of day 145 in the case going to trial on day 150 so we’re trying to make that communication, we’re trying to build those relationships. Building those relationships allow us to make sure we have our victims and witnesses working with the police department, make sure that we have the evidence so we can get those convictions on those violent individuals that we need.

Nestor Aparicio  19:52

We talked so much about trust, and Ivan Bates is our guest here. We’re faith these at Lexington market, just the public trust that if. Something were to happen, it would be fairly prosecuted that all that’s being done to make sure I don’t get carjacked on the way out of here, when I’m walking with my equipment across pocket street, people ask me if it’s safe to come down. Look, the Yankees are in Yeah. People like, Is it, is it safe to go to I mean, I never feel that way, but I would feel that way. If something bad happened to me on behalf of my wife and family, somebody here would be here to do something about it, right? And that’s a standard I would hold any elected official to, in a general sense, but the gun trace Task Force, the broken promises, the lack of trust that the community would have, that it’s safe and that it’s all on the up and up down here, I’d like to think that that part of it’s coming back for me, 1,000%

Ivan Bates  20:50

we can definitely feel that when we have case in front of juries, the police department, they’ve worked really hard. Commissioner Worley has done a great job of rebuilding the trust and the relationship. But the big thing is, and this one of the things I really appreciate having been a criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor, the system’s got to be fair. If the system isn’t fair, we as a people, are lost. And it’s my job to make sure that I do everything I can to make sure the system is fair. Sometimes we don’t have the evidence. If we don’t have the evidence, we can’t proceed. You know, one of the things with my job is I get to address the grand jury when, before we start. And you know, the grand jury is the ones who decide that whether or not they indict cases. And you know, when I address them, the one thing I always make sure, I let them know, if we as prosecutors have not done our part to show you the evidence, don’t indict, because the system only works when all parts of the system do their job. So as police, when they gather the information evidence, they got to do it their proper way. When we have it, we have to make sure and evaluate it is done properly. This is evidence we can use, and it’s evidence that would show the guilt of this individual

Nestor Aparicio  21:59

8

case,

Ivan Bates  22:00

yes, and then we go before the grand jury to get an indictment. We have to lay that information evidence out, and if we haven’t done our job, the grand jury is not going to give us an indictment. If the police haven’t done their job, then we’re not going to take the case of the grand jury. And so it’s important that the system and the people in the community believe we’re doing this in an honorable way. That’s why it hasn’t been only about locking up, locking up, locking up. We supported Act that was signed the law yesterday, the pace act that said, if using, if you musical artists, they can’t just use your musical lyrics against you to convict you unless they actually are some way tied or connected to the crime. So say you did a rap song in 2020 and you talked about shooting and killing somebody, and then now you’re charged with murder. They can’t just use those rap lyrics against you. But then, let’s say the murder happened in 2425 and in 26 you made a rap song about the murder and everything. Now they’re going to use those rap lyrics against you. So what it is is it helps artistic ability to make sure you’re able to do the things that you want in an artistic manner, but we’re doing it in a fair manner. Also we look at what’s called the Second Chance Act. We supported that, and that means that if you’ve done a crime, you’ve done at least 20 years, that you now have the opportunity to ask the court to look to say, Okay, can I maybe have my sentence modified? So let’s say a person does an attempt murder, and let’s say the person was struck, but they were 18 when it happened, and the judge gave him life, but the person’s moved on, done, you know, living their life that no After Effects, and now you’ve been in jail for 20 some odd years. You’re 3839 let’s say you’re 40 year old individual. You don’t have a single strike against you in prison. You’ve been a model prisoner, but you have a life sentence. That person now has the opportunity to get the court to maybe re sentence them so they can have hope to eventually come home things that are fair within the criminal justice system, we’ve tried to really focus on, but also the number one thing we, I feel we’ve really done a pretty decent job on, is the accountability factor for everybody. And not everybody needs to go to jail, but everybody has to be accountable. What does accountability does accountability look like at that level? Because the end of the day, if we make a safe city, then those individuals who live out in the county want to come down and experience fatalities. Well, I think

Nestor Aparicio  24:11

there’s something about being in your position on both sides of the aisle of prosecution and defense that you sat in really close rooms of people who really hurt people.

Ivan Bates  24:21

Oh yeah, without a doubt,

8

Nestor Aparicio  24:22

a lot.

Ivan Bates  24:23

Oh yeah.

Nestor Aparicio  24:23

And you sat really close with the victim,

Ivan Bates  24:26

8

yeah?

Nestor Aparicio  24:26

Or the victim’s family, who is wants to get a gun and get justice themselves, 1,000% right? So all of the emotion of all of that, and then there’s the law, and where the law comes in, yeah? And that’s why you’re in a room in a suit and tie, to try to interpret that in one way or another. What your preference in doing the job you do? What’s your favorite job as a guy that’s decorated that if I could pay you a million dollars to do anything, what side of it did you appreciate the most? And what would you when you’re done doing this and you go. To old age, and you just want to do a job within the framework of this. What’s the most rewarding thing you’ve done?

Ivan Bates  25:05

Definitely being the state’s attorney.

Nestor Aparicio  25:07

Okay,

8

Ivan Bates  25:07

but I would not be able to be a good state’s attorney if I hadn’t spent time as a defense attorney.

Nestor Aparicio  25:12

So being with with the bad guys. Yeah,

Ivan Bates  25:14

because you understand the mentality, you understand the way things happen. You understand how things come to be. So I don’t I see the words on a piece of paper when an officer writes a report, but I understand how those words, what they really mean, how they came to be. I can understand those conversations. I understand the gangs. Understand the way they operate, the way they move, and that’s why, when I came out and I said, bring a toothbrush, that wasn’t to be cute, you know, I said, if you’re a P violent offender, you want to carry your gun, bring

Nestor Aparicio  25:42

8

gun, bring it to know about gangs. How do they operate? Because we all watch these television show,

Ivan Bates  25:49

yeah, but the days I still

Nestor Aparicio  25:50

haven’t seen The Wire, by the way, that’s for you, Simon, I I just, I lived in the city. I didn’t really want to feel that, you know? I mean, if I lived in New Jersey, I wouldn’t watch sopranos, you know, just it, but, but, you know, there’s probably a gang member somewhere within five blocks of me right now, or two block like, literally, I don’t, you

Ivan Bates  26:11

wouldn’t, Nestor, it’s not the days and of everybody wearing the same colors and all this and all that, those, for the most part, are over.

8

Nestor Aparicio  26:18

Okay?

Ivan Bates  26:19

They’re gonna move in silence, in a different way, not to draw attention. And, you know,

Nestor Aparicio  26:24

phones trace, all of

Ivan Bates  26:25

8

that, all of that, all of that, but they’re going to have the same focus, and our focus is going to be to promote what is best interest of the game, whether they’re drugs, whether they’re guns, whether they’re sex trafficking, whatever the issue is, whatever the business is, that’s what they’re going to make sure they do, and they’re going to try to run it somewhat as a business in some ways, and almost in some ways, have a real business to hide what their other business is. And so you just have to understand that, as we’ve grown and moved and evolved, they’ve moved and grown and evolved as well, you know? And so those are things that we look at. Those are the things that we see. We try to have different tools to go ahead and try to use to take down some of those gangs. And also, gangs are different. It may just be a neighborhood crew, but they’re their own little gang, and they’re doing their own little thing. And so that’s why I say you got to be very skilled, and that’s why we have some of the best prosecutors to understand that what it looks like and how we can handle that.

Nestor Aparicio  27:25

Ivan Bates, here he is our state’s attorney Baltimore City, and trying to put the bad guys away and keep all the rest of us safe. Anything in running for office? I mean, you answer to the people. Is there any update? I mean, at some point it’s gonna come back. I wish more people voted. Is there anything you got on Trump that you want to throw in here, just in a general sense?

Ivan Bates  27:45

Well, look, you know, for me, the big thing that I think that we’ve been really focused on is just holding people accountable. We have to work. We have to reach across the aisle. Work with everybody. We do a lot of work with the feds. We do a lot of work on the state side, you know. But I’ll tell you one of the things that has really bothered me immensely is, as a lawyer, I was really focused on what’s going on at the Supreme Court, and the move that they did last week, or the week before they got the Voting Rights Act was very hurtful and harmful, because one of the things that our country has a terrible history of abuse, of Discrimination, and I think it’s very important that people understand that the Voting Rights Act was super important because it made sure that everybody’s voice is going to be heard, and that you could not have one group that was going to dominate to drown out the voice of the others. I think it doesn’t matter in the state of Maryland, you have Democrats, but Democrats need to make sure the Republicans voices are heard, and we need to make sure that Democrats voices are heard, that everybody has a voice to be heard, because when you don’t allow individuals of have their voice heard, eventually they’re going to go off and they’re going to make sure they’re heard in a way that’s never going to be pride for. I

Nestor Aparicio  28:52

mean, you’re an educated guy, lawyer, even at what we’re seeing out of DC is just, it’s it’s unacceptable, it’s corrupt. I mean, and they don’t want boys to be heard, is that’s absolute corruption for our country. There’s a question about that,

8

Ivan Bates  29:07

and that’s why, for me, I look at what the Supreme Court is saying. I look at the Supreme Court is doing, you know, I read an article the other day that really talked about, you know, how John the Chief Justice Roberts, what his legacy will be. And you know, it’s very sad, but I think we, you know, need to figure out, how do we combat this, what makes us and the only way to really combat it, the American way, is everybody has to vote. Everybody has to vote. And it’s not until you vote that you’re going to have change. And you know otherwise, to be honest, I don’t like the way our countries, we talk, we interact, we move with one another, because we’re going and we’re going backwards. You almost feel like, Wow, is this the tension that they felt during the Civil civil war? And you know, it’s almost feeling Are we moving that direction? You have the north, and I

Nestor Aparicio  29:57

want to fly to southern states and hang out. You know what I mean? Like, a lot of just, sort of, like, I just, I want to be with people who think the way that’s right, the thing, exactly, I don’t.

Ivan Bates  30:10

Well, I think, you know, one of the things though, that I always remind the binds everybody is sports. You know, when we have, you know, the world, FIFA, World Cup coming here, we have the Olympics, and that’s when people are proud to be American. We have to understand what that means to get back to that. And so I do feel that what we’ve seen has been unacceptable, but I also do feel that the glass is half full. So I always see hope go

Nestor Aparicio  30:33

8

back and run the city and the State’s Attorney’s Office. Ivan Bates here, we’re fade leads all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery as well as GBMC and our partners at foreign and Durham will come back for more from Baltimore, positive. We’re at Lexington market, world famous since 1886 stay with us.

Nestor Aparicio  30:50

You.