Hillaire Sears is Once Again a Free Man

Leslie Mendez

According to Mendez, the case involving Hillaire Sears highlights a number of issues within the criminal justice system.

Leslie Mendez, Attorney-at-law

“I think it’s important for us to also look at the manner in which parole was revoked. So Hillaire was working at the prison while on parole and it was while he was working at the prison that there were reasons, it seems that he was suspected for having indulged in marijuana and while he was there, he was asked to give a urine sample.  He was not allowed to then leave the prison. He was told that he should remain there while the test comes back. There are a lot of concerns about whether the prison authorities could have done this and kept him there detained for about fifty-five days before the decision to revoke his parole was actually made. It‘s important to know that we don‘t have yet the full written decision of the court, but that does raise concerns. So, for fifty-five days he was detained without any order of the court, without no discernible statute authorizing that they detain him in this manner before revoking his parole. And so we challenged those fifty-five days in the sense of, look, for fifty-five days you detained him without any legal justification. After that, then we looked at the manner in which his parole was revoked and it was revoked without giving him any opportunity to make representations.  He was simply given a paper with the notice. Your test has come back positive and your parole has been revoked, and from there he just remained at the prison. So until Friday that then he was released. So from that day he just remained in the prison.”

Isani Cayetano

“That’s from 2014 to Friday.”

Leslie Mendez

“So he went on that day to work and then he just didn’t go back home. So yeah, we challenged that and we also challenged some of the prison conditions at the prison.”