Just two weeks before the deadly Christmas parade rampage, Waukesha suspect Darrell Brooks was arrested for allegedly running over an ex-girlfriend with his red SUV and then released on $1,000 bail. The court has lost a record of that critical bail hearing forever.
Every official court proceeding in Wisconsin is recorded by either a court reporter or a digital recording device. However, the transcript of Darrell Brooks’s bail hearing is gone for good; an official told Fox News on Tuesday.
“The digital recording is damaged,” she said when an attempt was made to order the Nov. 5 transcript.
Brooks, a 39-year-old career criminal, allegedly mowed down his ex-girlfriend, who is the mother of one of his children, on Nov. 2 with a red Ford Escape — leaving a tire mark on her left leg, according to authorities.
A junior prosecutor recommended $1,000 cash bail for Brooks despite the serious charges and another pending felony case against the 39-year-old career criminal. Brooks’ mother posted the sum promptly.
On November 21, about two weeks later, Brooks drove the same red SUV into holiday revelers, killing at least six people and wounding 60 others, authorities say.
John Chisholm, a Milwaukee County District Attorney, has subsequently launched an internal investigation into the widely criticized decision to request the paltry bail amount.
“The state’s bail recommendation in this case was inappropriately low in light of the nature of the recent charges and the pending charges against Mr. Brooks,” Chisholm said in a statement.
Brooks is locked up at the Waukesha County Jail on a $5 million bond and faces six counts of intentional homicide in addition to other charges.
Brooks, with a criminal record stretching back to 1999, has become a poster child for the failures of liberal criminal justice reforms.
