4-15-22 fdl county district attorney defends bail question raised by attorney general opponent

The Fond du Lac County District Attorney and Republican attorney general candidate is defending his office’s handling of a case involving a man who shot and killed an Appleton firefighter after being released from the Fond  du Lac County Jail.   Ruben Houston III was released from the Fond  du Lac County Jail on $500 bail in May 2019 and days later shot and killed Appleton firefighter Mitch Lundgaard.    District Atttorney Eric Toney is coming under fire after his it was learned his office failed to notice that Houston changed the spelling of his last name in 2011, and had previous felony convictions under his former name.  “What we’ve identified is a hole in the system where the name change allowed this defendant to effectively hide from his criminal history,”  Toney told WFDL news.  “Even if the arresting law enforcement officers had noted the name change in their contact they probably wouldn’t have thought any reason to document that because they come across name changes all the time.”   Still, Toney says the District Attorney’s Office recommended $5,000 cash bail.  Houston asked for a signature bond and the judge lowered the bail to $500 cash.  Toney says he doesn’t think Houston would have gotten out of jail if the bail request had not been lowered.  “I don’t know what his financial resources are so it’s hard to comment if that (bail) would have been able to be posted, but it seemed clear from the initial appearance to preliminary hearing he had been unable to post that bond.”   Toney takes issue with his attorney general opponent Adam Jarchow’s comment that his office botched  Houston’s bail.  “People that haven’t been exposed to the criminal justice system sometimes have a difficult time understanding some of the complex issues, and I’ve gotten to know Adam (Jarchow) on the campaign trail, but the fact of the matter is he’s never prosecuted a case before, he’s never handled a criminal case,”  Toney said.  The issue is making news because Toney called on governor Tony Evers to fire the Milwaukee County DA over the low bail amount given Darrell Brooks.  Brooks was released on bond and later arrested for plowing into a Christmas parade in Waukesha.