MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said Thursday that Darrell Brooks was issued a low bail for an early November incident because of a mistake by an Assistant District Attorney, which Chisolm called “human error.”
During a virtual meeting with a committee of Milwaukee County Board Members Thursday, Chisholm explained how Brooks, the suspect in the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy, was given a $1,000 bond after allegedly attacking a woman and running her leg over with his car in early November, just weeks before the parade.
“That is a decision that on its face I have already articulated and stated fairly early that I believe it was inappropriately low given the context of what we knew about the defendant,” Chisholm said.
He said an Assistant District Attorney was working a lot of cases, and did not look at the risk assessment that was completed on Brooks before setting the bail.
“She simply charged the case, she looked at the previous bail, saw that it was $500, and doubled it. That’s it. That’s a mistake. That’s human error," Chisholm said.
Some board members asked about the pandemic-related backlogs the DA’s office is dealing with.
Chief Judge Mary Triggiano said there is a backlog of 1,600 felony and 3,100 misdemeanor cases.
That is what Chisholm said led to Brooks getting a $500 bail for an arrest in 2020.
The bail was set at $10,000, then lowered to $7,500.
Because the state did not meet the requirement for a speedy trial, the bond was reduced to $500.
Chisholm spoke with reporters outside his office after the virtual meeting.
“Every prosecutor. There isn’t a prosecutor in this country that sees a circumstance like this and doesn’t say this is their deepest fear. This is your deepest fear, you know? You have an obligation in every case to try and do your best to try and protect victims, protect the community, and an error in judgement, or you lose a case…you try your very best but you lose it? It’s always a gut punch. You’re concerned that maybe that person’s going to do something, but that is our system. To do this job effectively, you have to be willing to engage in that and not just quit when bad things happen," he said.
The committee wants to meet with DA Chisholm soon, asking him to find out how often bails are set without looking at the risk assessment.
Chisholm said his office is looking into it.