Civil rights groups say San Mateo County courts are ignoring bail-reform mandate

REDWOOD CITY — A pair of civil rights organizations have told the San Mateo County Superior Court that its criminal arraignments are routinely ignoring a California Supreme Court mandate to grant more defendants affordable bail and pretrial release.

Bay Area-based Silicon Valley De-Bug and the Civil Rights Corps, based in Washington, D.C., submitted a 400-page complaint earlier this month to Presiding Judge Elizabeth K. Lee that centers on in-court observations of three court commissioners running arraignments in Peninsula courtrooms.