Follow the bouncing bail
DA withdraws bid to hike amount for homeless man
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins on Monday said her office is pulling back a bid to jack up bail for a homeless man following uproar against the elevated bail request.
The DA’s Office had reportedly made the bid for a tenfold bail hike after staff found out the Massachusetts Bail Fund would help spring the man.
Rollins — who recently criticized the bail fund after the group helped pay $15,000 bail for a Level 3 sex offender who’s now accused of raping another woman after the fund let him out — addressed the recent bail motion for a 58-year-old homeless man on Monday.
Barry Twomey is facing armed robbery charges for a July incident at the South Bay Mall, and prosecutors initially asked he get held on $5,000 bail, CommonWealth Magazine reported.
Then, the DA’s Office asked for a new hearing to raise the bail to $50,000 after prosecutors found out the Massachusetts Bail Fund would pay the $5,000, CommonWealth Magazine reported.
“Regarding the 10x increase Bail Motion. I did not know my office had taken this position until the ACLU told me,” Rollins tweeted on Monday. “This Motion will be withdrawn and I will be speaking to my staff.
“I may not agree with everything the Bail Fund does, but my office, as in me, Rachael, was wrong here,” she wrote.
The ACLU of Massachusetts commended Rollins for the withdrawal, tweeting, “Props to @DArollins for owning and repairing the missteps of the people and institution she manages. We hope her leadership, honesty and sense of accountability rubs off on other public officials.”
The Committee for Public Counsel Services applauded Rollins “for being accountable,” said Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel for CPCS.
“We sincerely hope that this was an isolated incident and that bail will not be used as punishment in any case,” he said in a statement. “We also hope that the presence of the Massachusetts Bail Fund will never be a factor in a bail argument.”
The Massachusetts Bail Fund did not respond to comment on Monday.
Controversy has surrounded the fund after it helped free twice-convicted rapist Shawn McClinton. He’s now accused of raping another woman after the bail fund let him out.
The bail fund, whose slogan is “Free Them All,” has said it would continue to pay increasingly high amounts to bail people without regard to what they’re charged with.
“We post bail for people regardless of charge or court history,” the bail fund wrote. “Our self-imposed monetary limit has only ever existed to ensure our often resource-limited fund remains sustainable and predictable for people seeking our assistance.”