Convicted Sex Offender Bail Revoked

From CNN:

FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- A former Florida teacher, who for a year avoided serving a 43-year sentence for sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy, was handcuffed and ordered back into state custody Friday.

. . .

Aaron Mohanlal lowered his head as Broward Circuit Judge Marc Gold reversed a decision he made last summer granting the convicted sex offender a $610,000 bond while his conviction was appealed.

. . .

In April 2007, Mohanlal was convicted of 13 counts, including child abuse, molestation and lewd battery for forcing the boy, one of his students, to have sex in a classroom supply closet. Occasionally, the teacher would take the boy home during school hours for sex. He also purchased a cell phone for the teen and created nicknames for their genitalia to help keep phone sex a secret. The abuse went on for nearly two years.

Gold said on Friday that he weighed "the severity" of the case in deciding to revoke Mohanlal's bond.

. . .

Gold granted the bond in July 2007. It allowed Mohanlal to remain free until his case was tried on appeal -- a process that could take years. Gold had agreed to the bond on the condition that Mohanlal's relatives have liens placed on three family properties as collateral. That meant that if Mohanlal left town, or did not show up for court, the family would -- in Gold's words -- "lose everything."

Read the motion to bring Mohanlal back into custody (PDF)

• Read the bond hearing transcript (PDF)

. . .

Tom Blomberg, dean of the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, said granting the bond was a mistake.

"This guy had all the incentive to take off knowing what he would face in prison. So, to know that there was nothing holding him here -- that his family wouldn't suffer one bit if he skipped town -- that's an enormous screw-up," Blomberg said.

Comments

[Demetrios Kritikos]

I do not think this people shold be allowed to be in the community at all.