Lee v. Bieluch
Lee v. Bieluch
Opinion of the Court
Daniel Lee petitions this court for a writ of habeas corpus, seeking review of the circuit court’s order denying his motion to modify bond after the state nolle prossed a second charge which had resulted in the increase of his original bond. We previously granted the petition and ordered reinstatement of the original bond. We now write to explain that we granted the petition because the state presented no new information which would justify the increased bond amount once the second charge was dismissed.
Lee was charged in two separate cases with burglary of a structure and grand theft in the first case and trespass and grand theft auto in the second. At first appearance on both charges the court set a bond of $25,000 or “supervised own recognizance” release (“SOR”) with in-home treatment. Lee was released on SOR. Six months later he was arrested for a new offense of robbery with a deadly weapon. He moved for bond, which the court set at $50,000 with house arrest on all three pending cases, thus modifying the original bond. The state nolle prossed the robbery charge another six months later, and Lee moved to modify the bond to return it to the original bond.
At the hearing on modification, the state argued that the higher bond was appropriate because of the length of the prison term Lee was facing due to his extensive prior record. Defense counsel argued that the judge at first appearance knew about Lee’s prior record, but the court interrupted stating, “we don’t know that. A lot of times at first appearances the State is not able to come up with a full record....” Counsel noted that the only reason why the bond was increased was due to the new charge which had been dropped. Nevertheless, the court denied the bond modification.
The fact that the state dropped the charge does not necessarily mean that
The petition is granted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.