Sunday, December 19, 2021

Preferential treatment or an incompletely run bureaucracy?

Controversial bail hearing not recorded; human error blamed

Bruce Vielmetti
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The only people who know what happened in a Milwaukee County courtroom last month when Darrell E. Brooks Jr. — now charged with six homicides in the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack — was released on $1,000 bail are those there that day.

They're not talking.

And there is no audio recording of what happened.

Court officials say they only discovered the missing recording after the Waukesha parade attack, when they fielded media requests for copies of the recording of the hearing.

Brooks was released on bail Nov. 5 on prior charges of running someone over with the same vehicle used to plow into parade participants and spectators. A day after the attack, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said an overworked assistant mistakenly recommended the $1,000 bail, which he conceded was "inappropriately low."

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