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Suspect in rape was out on bail
whoiscarol | January 7, 2010 at 04:23 pm
Kingston man charged with 2d assault on a child
Joseph Gardner of Kingston (right) pleaded not guilty yesterday in Plymouth District Court to charges of raping a 3-year-old girl. (Ted Fitzgerald/ Associated Press/ Pool)
By John R. Ellement and Jonathan Saltzman
Globe Staff
Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said Gardner faced “heinous allegations’’ in the first arrest and that prosecutors were disappointed that Plymouth District Court Judge Thomas F. Brownell set bail at $10,000 instead of the $200,000 they originally sought.
After Gardner’s indictment, the first rape case was transferred to Superior Court, where prosecutors again requested high bail – $150,000. But Judge Joseph M. Walker III kept bail at $10,000, and Gardner remained free.
Depending on the circumstances, Cruz said, judges typically impose a range of bail amounts in sexual assault cases. In some instances, he said, judges have released rape suspects on their own recognizance.
On Friday, August 28; CNN broadcast an interview with Phillip Garrido, the man who admitted to abducting young Jaycee Dugard 18 years ago and holding her captive in the backyard of his residence in Antioch, California.