Milwaukee Co. DA answers questions about why Waukesha parade suspect was out on ‘inappropriately low’ bail: ‘I’m not here to make excuses’
MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee County’s district attorney appeared before a county board committee Thursday afternoon to answer questions about why the suspect in the Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy was out on a low bail.
District Attorney John Chisolm has been under fire since it was learned that Brooks had been released on what Chisolm himself described as “inappropriately low” bail in another case days before Brooks allegedly drove an SUV into the crowded parade, killing six people and injuring dozens more.
“There are explanations to what happened, there are no excuses,” Chisolm said. “I’m not here to make excuses. I own every decision that is made by any member of my office. I have to invest them with enormous discretionary decision-making power, and they exercise that overwhelmingly very well.”
RELATED: Previous bonds were ‘inappropriately low’ for suspect in Waukesha parade crash, DA says
Chisolm added the low bail figure was the result of “a young assistant district attorney doing the best she could who made a mistake.”
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin also addressed the issue in an interview.
“I expected and saw (an) immediate response from the district attorney in Milwaukee County to say, ‘This has to be examined thoroughly.’ That this was outrageous. And we need to have that analysis and that discovery before we know whether this was a singular failure in the system or whether there is policy change demanded here. And I just don’t think we know that yet,” Baldwin said.
COPYRIGHT 2022 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
