To car and jail cell!
Tiambra Walker is in a place where it is difficult to run down and kill pedestrians and their dogs. The young lady, age 21, is cooling her heels in the Dane County Jail. Her bail was set at $300,000 this week after authorities finally got their mitts on the fugitive. But not before she ran down Stephen Fleck, 66, one day in February 2023 while the pedestrian was walking his dog on Schroeder Road, killing man and dog.
Ms. Walker kept on driving — all the way to Peoria IL, where she was apprehended after a 13-month dragnet waged by over 100 police officers. (Defund the Police, indeed!) (Memo to self: type the word “allegedly” now and then.)
Tiambra’s current bail is one hundred times higher than the $3,000 price for her freedom set after a hit and run 11 months before the Schroeder Road fatalities. The earlier one (on 03-02-2022) injured four people in a Whole Foods parking lot. Best we can figure, the guy who bailed her out so cheaply, one Liam Manjon, is now in Chicago. He should remain there. His organization, Free the 350, celebrated by the progressive media hereabouts for striking a blow against supposedly racist slave-catching police, appears to be quiescent. We wrote about it here:
The price is almost right
The District Attorney’s office asked for $1 million bail. Mr. Fleck’s family pleaded for no bail whatsoever. Ms. Walker’s public defender argued for $20 grand, alleging his client was indigent. (Crime does NOT pay!). Blaska was not present for the bail hearing but witnesses say Ms. W “got dramatic during the hearing and tried to storm off.” Probably for Peoria. ALLEGEDLY!
Republicans in the legislature recently hardened bail. In the Senate, only one Democrat voted with them. Two-thirds of Wisconsin voters in referenda agreed a year ago to allow judges to consider “the totality of the circumstances, including the accused’s previous convictions for a violent crime, the probability that the accused will fail to appear, the need to protect the community from serious harm and prevent witness intimidation, and potential affirmative defenses.” The ACLU and the League of (Liberal) Women Voters fought bail reform. The Capital Times published many op eds in opposition; none that we could find in favor.
Common sense bail reform got a boost after Darrell Brooks drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in Waukesha in 2021, killing six and injuring more than 60. The man had been out on $1,000 bail for attempting to — you guessed it — run down the mother of his child.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: What is the cost of progressivism? Ask Mr. Fleck’s family.
6 responses to “Throw away the keys”
Epic POcriminalS Walker “allegedly” tried to RUN AWAY, not just once, but twice, after being apprehended for “allegedly” stealing a purse.
To paraphrase Don Corleone: “Now listen. Whoever tells you she deserves bail, they’re the traitor/s. Don’t forget that.“
The Gotch
Dave, in referencing how Walker’s bail got paid, your post actually suggests why the elimination of cash bail is a good idea. Consider: bond conditions (financial and nonfinancial) are set during an initial appearance hearing in front of a judicial court commissioner that lasts about five minutes per defendant during the crammed afternoon sessions. The prosecution will make a recommendation; the defense attorney will counter. But if cash bond is going to be set, no one really has any idea what sort of financial resources might be available to that defendant. They might present as having few such resources, but maybe there’s an Aunt Polly out there who is willing to put a second mortgage on her home to bail out their little angel. And, as you noted, organizations like Free the 350 are out there as a wild card. Recall the case of Kenyairra Gadson, accused (and ultimately convicted) of a 2018 Madison parking ramp homicide. Her bail was set at $100,000, an amount that was seemingly beyond her resources, but Free the 350 paid it on her behalf (it is worth noting that she was a model pretrial defendant, making all court dates and not accused of additional crimes during that period). This should lead you to the conclusion that if you want someone detained during the pretrial period, cash bail is a seriously flawed tool to achieve that. (Unless you want to set all cash bails at $1 billion?) So if that’s what you want– people accused of serious crimes held in jail until the conclusion of their case– then how about having the law allow a judge/commissioner to consider the overall risk of the defendant absconding, as well as their risk of committing (or, rather, being accused of committing) additional crimes during the pendency of their case if they were released, and have it be a binary decision: release or detain? No cash bail. Because if the public interest is deemed served by pretrial detention, then the Aunt Pollys or the Free the 350s will not be able to step in.
Granted, this is a very facile argument for the elimination of cash bail. A full-throated argument involves careful consideration of whether we really believe in the foundational principle that every accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, as well as a consideration of the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of “excessive bail,” as well as a discussion of the criminalization of poverty (e.g. you and I are accused of the same kind of crime and we have similar past criminal records, and we each get a $10,000 cash bail, but you’re fairly well off and I’m indigent. So you get to bail yourself out and have your freedom, and I have to sit in jail).
And it’s not just progressives who advocate for bail reform in general. The Koch organization has been involved for years. And here’s what Americans for Prosperity had to say a few years back about bail reform in New Hampshire: https://americansforprosperity.org/blog/icymi-our-turn-bail-reform-is-preventing-the-criminalization-of-poverty-lets-not-undo-these-changes/.
This is what I co-wrote last year on the topic, in light of that bail-related referendum, if you’re interested: https://captimes.com/opinion/guest-columns/opinion-bail-reform-amendment-is-not-the-one-wisconsin-needs/article_40780fb3-2ffb-55ed-b6b6-842d3c28134b.html
What’s your alternative?
The alternative is, as I said, make the pretrial release decision a binary one: release or detain, based upon an assessment of the risk of the defendant absconding and/or the risk of the defendant committing new crimes during the pretrial period. This is what then-Governor Christie did in New Jersey seven years ago (well, he didn’t entirely get rid of cash bail, but it is rarely used now), and what Governor Pritzker just did in Illinois– going to show that there can be bipartisan consensus on this issue. Is this a perfect system, a panacea to ensure public safety? Of course not, but the cash bail system isn’t, either.
Isn’t that what a bails bondsman is for? Progressives always want to pass the buck (ha!) at the expense of personal responsibility.
Bail bondsmen don’t exist in Wisconsin. But let’s say they did. Then someone could be given a cash bond of $10,000 and they’d only have to put up 10% of that with the bail bondsman to secure their release. The bail bonds industry makes it easier for folks to bail out… which is maybe not what you want for the higher-risk defendants?