Post Exposes PG County Judge’s Paper Trail

Washington Post Exposes PG County Judge’s Paper Trail was originally published on City Desk on Mar. 17, 2009, at 10:42 am

Belated story tout: Sunday’s Washington Post featured a puffy profile of Hassan A. El-Amin.

He’s the Prince George’s County judge who’s getting hammered for releasing an alleged murderer from jail with no bond and for no obvious reason.

The story doesn’t give any good explanation why El-Amin just let the young suspect walk out of court with his mother.

But it does give a litany of the judge’s deeds over the years: El-Amin sponsors a youth oratorical contest with a group of black lawyers, for example. And he started drug and alcohol education programs and a chess program at a local high school. He “has adult children and grandchildren,” we’re told.

Objection! Irrelevant!

But, the piece did contain one tidbit from El-Amin’s bio that, while adding no context to his bizarre no-bond decision, is so awesome that it almost makes me want to give him a pass for turning a possible killer loose all willy nilly: “The judge holds a patent for a device that pre-moistens bathroom tissue.”