MAINE MANHUNT PUTS BAIL RULES ON WATCH
New laws and court decisions are making it tougher for prosecutors to win bail for criminal defendants, the head of the Massachusetts District Attorney Association said — as the manhunt for a fugitive bailed in the Bay State and now wanted in the killing of a Maine sheriff deputy continued yesterday.
Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster yesterday implored for fugitive John Williams to turn himself in and said 200 officers from multiple agencies were searching the area for him. The FBI announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to Williams’ arrest.
The killing of Somerset County Sheriff’s Cpl. Eugene Cole, 61, on Wednesday drew attention to the Massachusetts courts because Williams, 29, was free on a reduced $5,000 bail stemming from a gun charge last month in Haverhill.
“In these days, it’s becoming
increasingly more and more of a challenge to try to obtain an appropriate bail,” said Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, who heads the prosecutors’ group. He cited new obstacles in the criminal justice reform bill signed two weeks ago by Gov. Charlie Baker.
In Massachusetts, bail can only be set higher than what a defendant can pay if it’s necessary to ensure the defendant will return to court, according to a 2017 ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court.
Prosecutors say that under the criminal justice bill signed into law April 13 by Baker, which takes effect July 12, a judge who sets an unattainable bail has to say why the bail’s benefit outweighs “the potential adverse impact on the person, their immediate family or dependents resulting from pretrial detention.”
“That’s a new test,” Morrissey said. “Someone comes in and says, ‘I’m the sole breadwinner. I have five kids, and I have to work.’ How do we know? How are we going to figure that out? What’s the penalty for lying?”
The prosecutors’ association has for years pushed a bill to limit defendants’ ability to have their bail reduced in superior court review by requiring judges to find an error in fact or law rather than letting them have an absolute ability to reset the bail.
Senate President Harriette L. Chandler’s office declined to comment on the prosecutors’ bail reform bill, but in a statement said she would be looking at “the full facts” of the Williams case. House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo’s office did not return a request for comment.
Baker said yesterday the courts should review Williams’ case to see “if, in fact, it should have been handled differently.” If that review finds a flaw in bail laws, “we’ll change them,” Baker said.
Williams, while held on Massachusetts gun charges last month, wanted his $7,500 cash bail cut to $2,000. Prosecutors, arguing he lived 165 miles away in Maine, with no local ties, fought the request. But Judge Timothy Q. Feeley reduced it to $5,000, saying, “The court has not considered the defendant — any alleged dangerousness of the defendant in setting the amount of bail. The court has considered the financial resources of the defendant and has specifically asked what amount of bail could be afforded by the defendant.”