🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Briggman (paradigm@mercury.interpath.net) wrote:

: I have NEVER, EVER (and I was a police officer for four years) seen an 
: accused kidnapper/rapist/armed robber allowed to be on house arrest 
: until trial. I would have thought that when he was formally charged 
: yesterday (arraignment) they would have kept him locked up or at least 
: placed him on a bond so high that he would have had to stay in Orange 
: County's jail.

Bond is intended to insure that the accused will not flee from 
prosecution. It is not allowed as punishment since that would be the 
imposition of a sentence prior to the determination of guilt.

In this instance, there probably would not be a bond high enough that 
could not be met by the parents. And if one were to be set so high that 
it would have been impossible to meet, any good attorney could have had 
it reduced.

House arrest seemed like a good compromise and (unless I'm mistaken) was 
an arrangement that had to be agreed to (no matter how reluctantly) by 
the accused through his attorney. Now if he violates that agreement then 
imposition of an improbably high bond (or no bond at all) could be 
imposed since the accused would have tried to flee prosecution.

Steve Crisp