Judge Rejects Councilman’s Plea for Prisoner’s Release

A judge on Tuesday ordered a Palmdale man awaiting trial for selling rock cocaine and possessing guns to remain in jail, despite a request from a Lancaster city councilman who is also a Baptist minister that the man be released on his own recognizance.

Councilman Henry Hearns acknowledged sending a “character reference letter” on church stationery seeking the release of 19-year-old Terrence S. Williams, a former parishioner. But Antelope Municipal Judge Ian Grant refused to lower Williams’ $10,000 bail.

And in a hearing on Friday, Grant publicly cited Hearns’ letter but warned, apparently half-jokingly, that releasing a suspect from jail solely at the reverend’s request might lead to a flood of people with legal troubles seeking to join his church.

Hearns said he wrote the letter relying on assurances from Williams’ parents that their son had no prior criminal convictions. But according to a sheriff’s report, Williams told deputies he had a shotgun because gang members were after him because he had previously shot at them.

In an interview Tuesday, Hearns, 59, stressed that he sent the letter as a pastor and not a city official. Also, Hearns said he occasionally has written letters for other defendants in the past, including during his two years on the City Council, and sees no problem with the practice.

“Any pastor who believes in what he’s doing has a right to send a character reference letter to a judge,” Hearns said. “I didn’t demand anything. I wrote a very gentle letter,” Hearns added, stressing that his letter did not make any claim on Williams’ guilt or innocence.

The councilman, however, also acknowledged that he was not familiar with the details of the charges against Williams and had not been in contact with him in recent years until Williams’ mother, also a former parishioner, sought Hearns’ help after her son got into legal trouble.

Last fall, Hearns admitted he had unwittingly referred loan customers to an alleged con man who also was a parishioner. A warrant was issued for the arrest of the man, who is still being sought by authorities. And early in 1991, Hearns had his city and church wages garnished to pay a $1,478 apartment rental debt left by a homeless family for whom he had co-signed.

Williams as a youngster had been part of the choir at the First Missionary Baptist Church of Littlerock where Hearns is pastor, which Hearns said he noted in the letter. But neither Hearns nor Williams’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Anthony Patti, would release the letter on Tuesday.

After a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Grant ruled that Williams must stand trial on a felony charge of selling about a third of a gram of rock cocaine to two undercover sheriff’s deputies Sept. 29 in Palmdale. Grant also set a pretrial date of Nov. 10 in Lancaster Superior Court.

Williams also faces four misdemeanor charges stemming from incidents July 22 and July 30 in which deputies said they found a stolen pistol and a loaded shotgun in Williams’ car.

According to a sheriff’s report, Williams told deputies he had the shotgun for protection from gang members stemming from a prior confrontation. “The Bloods are after me cause I had shot at them before, because they had pulled a gun on me on July 4,” the deputies quoted Williams as saying.

Williams’ mother, Brenda King, said in an interview that she is sure her son, who has been attending Antelope Valley College, is innocent of the drug charge. And while she was not familiar with the sheriff’s report, King said someone had fired at her son outside their Palmdale apartment a few months ago.