Judge, sheriff tell Astoria council pretrial reforms and public-defense capacity shape jail bookings and services

Judge John Peterson, the circuit court judge for the county, told the Astoria City Council on July 28 that changes in state law and public-defense capacity are reshaping who is held in custody and for how long. "I can't talk about any pending or active cases," Peterson said, adding that he could explain how the system now functions and where its bottlenecks are. "We have 3 judges. They're all on the bench pretty regularly," Peterson said, describing court staffing and workload.

Peterson and Sheriff Matt Phillips framed Senate Bill 48 — the state pretrial reform law — as a principal reason fewer people are held just to see a judge. "It really made the assumption that you're only gonna stay the night in jail to see a judge if you commit felonies or a person crime," Peterson said, summarizing the bill's shift toward release presumptions and the removal of mandatory minimum bail in many cases. He added that local judicial districts retain limited, offense-specific override criteria set under a chief justice order.

The judge also described the county's pretrial…