The motion was filed by Assistant Attorney General Brian D. Gallagher, who is prosecuting the case.
It was Associate Judge David A. Wiseman who reduced the bail for Alfred P. Hocog, 17, to $75,000 and allowed the defendant to post 10 percent of the amount, or $7,500.
Wiseman had yet to issue a written order on the motion for bail modification filed by attorney Joaquin Torres, Hocog’s counsel.
The father of Hocog has been proposed as his third party custodian.
The defense also offered some property as bond.
Gallagher said Wiseman’s order “should be reconsidered.”
“The drastic reduction of [Hocog’s] bail would cause irreparable harm to the people of the commonwealth and to the prosecution’s main witness, the victim of a brutal sexual assault.”
Gallagher is asking the court to reinstitute the original $100,000 cash bail on Hocog.
Hocog, Joseph Cabrera Camacho Jr., 31, Angel Jess Santos, 21, and Ivan Jones Castro, 33, were separately arrested by authorities for kidnapping and raping a Kagman student last June.
The court imposed a $100,000 bail on each of the four defendants who remain incarcerated at the Department of Corrections facility.
The AGO acknowledged Hocog’s right to bail.
But Gallagher said the bail reduction is “insufficient to secure [Hocog’s] compliance with the bail conditions….”
Accordingly, Gallagher said the government is requesting the court to postpone enforcement of its order, pending a hearing on the motion for reconsideration.
Hocog’s release through a reduced bail, Gallagher said, “will make it impossible for the commonwealth’s witnesses (especially the teenage victim) to fully participate in the prosecution.”
Gallagher agreed with Wiseman’s observation that Hocog had threatened Angel Jess Santos and told him not to talk to authorities.
Gallagher said “such drastic discrepancy in bail between the participants in a joint enterprise can only serve to undermine the community’s faith in the evenhanded administration of justice.”
“When facing a life sentence and overwhelming evidence of [Hocog’s] guilt, $7,500 of his parents’ money will do little to encourage [the] defendant to comply with the court’s order. Moreover, his incentive to flee is strong,” Gallagher said.
He said the weight of evidence against Hocog “is overwhelming.”
Gallagher noted that Wiseman already found probable cause that Hocog committed the crime.
In return for Santos’ cooperation, Gallagher said Santos will receive a sentence of 40-year incarceration, “of which [Santos] will serve between 10 and 20 years.”
This is hardly the “sweetheart deal” described by Hocog’s defense counsel, Gallagher said.
“The overwhelming evidence against [Hocog] certainly militates against the bail reduction ordered by the court,” Gallagher said.
