A Milwaukee County judge has set bail of $200,000 for Darrell Brooks who is already being held in jail in Waukesha County on a $5 million bail.
Darrell Brooks faces six counts of intentional homicide for allegedly killing six people with his vehicle on Nov. 21, during the annual Waukesha Christmas parade. His seven-figure bail in that case was set on Nov. 23.
On Monday, there was a status hearing regarding Brooks getting a new defense attorney for the domestic violence charge filed against him in Milwaukee County for an incident that happened on Nov. 2. Brooks had posted the $1,000 bail in that domestic violence case and was released a few days before the Waukesha incident.
At Monday's hearing, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Torbenson asked that Brooks' Milwaukee County bail now be set at $200,000 because of the severity of the Waukesha case and for allegedly violating a no-contact order after the domestic violence charge by making 49 phone calls from jail to the victim.
"Twenty-five of those calls did get through to the victim, and in 14 of those calls, the state has charged the victim with engaging in intimidation and a pattern of intimidation," Torbenson told the court.
Brooks' new lawyer, Public Defender Robert Hampton, argued against the six-figure bail, noting the $5 million bail in Waukesha.
"I'm fearful of where this leads to — raising bail on people who can't make bail in the first place. I look at this as a DA's office, which is allowed to blow in the political winds, and I think that's appropriate sometimes. But the courts are not supposed to move in that manner," Hampton said.
Circuit Judge Michelle Havas agreed to the new bail of $200,000, contending that someone could be Brooks' benefactor and pay the $5 million bail in Waukesha County.
The higher bail comes as some conservatives have criticized the Milwaukee County's District Attorney's office for last month's $1,000 bail amount in Brooks' domestic violence charge. Now, about a half dozen people who say they live in the county, including longtime activist and landlord Orville Seymer, have formally asked Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to remove District Attorney John Chisholm from office.
