Milwaukee's District Attorney faces furious questions about why alleged Waukesha parade killer Darrell Brooks was out on the streets a...
Milwaukee's District Attorney faces furious questions about why alleged Waukesha parade killer Darrell Brooks was out on the streets after it emerged he's been bailed twice this year despite a lengthy criminal history stretching back to 1999.
John Chisolm released a statement Monday admitting Brooks, 39, should not have been released on a $1,000 bond earlier this month following an alleged hit-and-run incident involving his girlfriend.
But Chisolm, 58, has previously boasted of letting a nonprofit opposed to cash bail audit his office, and has spoken repeatedly about trying to reduce his county's prison population.
He has done so despite murders in the area spiking by 95 per cent between 2019 and 2020, with 2021 on course to see as many homicides as last year.
Boasting a lengthy rap sheet dating back to 1999 with more than 15 arrests in the state of Wisconsin alone, career criminal Brooks, 39 - who is also a registered sex offender - benefited from the DA's lenient policies.
After spending eight months behind bars between July 2020 and February 2021 for shooting at another vehicle on the road after a fight, Brooks, an aspiring rapper who 'turned to the streets at a very young age,' found himself out on bail after a bond previously set by the Chisolm's office at $10,000 was dropped to $500 in February.
The reason behind the reduction? The Milwaukee court system, backed-up because of the COVID-19 pandemic, couldn't give the serial lawbreaker - whose charges range from possession of drugs, strangulation and suffocation, battery, illegally possessing firearms as a convicted felon, and resisting arrest - a trial fast enough.
Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisolm released a statement Monday admitting his office made a mistake by allowing Brooks to be released on a $1,000 cash bond earlier this month
Brooks was then arrested again, on November 2, in Milwaukee, for hunting down the mother of one of his children at a local hotel. He then followed her down the street with his red Ford SUV - seen in one of the wannabe rapper's music videos - and allegedly ran her over in the parking lot of a gas station after she refused to get into his car.
DailyMail.com obtained copies of his arrest warrant for that incident on Monday which reveal he followed her to a gas station, punched her 'with a closed fist' and then 'ran her over.' The car appears to be the same one used in Sunday's murders.
Brooks was subsequently arrested and charged with five counts including bail jumping, for having failed to meet the terms of one of his many other sets of bail or probation requirements.
Terrifying video posted to social media shows a speeding red SUV collide into a group of people marching in the middle of the street during the annual holiday parade in Waukesha, some 20 miles west of downtown Milwaukee
The SUV was found around five blocks from where the parade carnage took place, parked in a driveway. It's unclear whose home it was or if he was found inside, but he was taken into custody nearby
The Christmas parade began on Sunday at 4pm, with participants starting at Main St. and Whiterock Ave. It was always intended to be a short parade, ending half a mile away at the northeast corner of Cutler Park. At 4.39pm, the red SUV is filmed speeding down Main Street. It smashed into the crowd, and sent bodies flying, before carrying on down towards the end of the parade, where the car broke through barriers. The SUV was found less than five blocks away and the driver was taken into custody but it's unclear exactly where
However, on November 11, the culpable criminal once again escaped incarceration by posting bail - this time on a $1,000 cash bond.
By November 19 - two days before the Waukesha attack - he was on the streets again; and by November 21, Brooks was allowed back behind the wheel of his Ford.
After Sunday night's massacre, which saw a speeding, red SUV plow into paradegoers in the suburban town in the neighboring county of Waukesha, Brooks was again apprehended by Milwaukee police as a suspect.
Following Brooks' arrest, Chisolm's office released a statement Monday conceding that the career criminal's bail was set 'inappropriately low'
Following Brooks' arrest, Chisolm's office released a statement Monday conceding that the career criminal's bail was set 'inappropriately low.'
'The bail recommendation in this case is not consistent with the approach of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office toward matters involving violent crime, nor was it consistent with the risk assessment of the defendant prior to setting of bail.
'This office is currently conducting an internal review of the decision to make the recent bail recommendation in this matter in order to determine the appropriate next steps,' the statement read.
The massive misstep in the Milwaukee legal office's handling of Brooks' bail proceedings comes as career prosecutor and longtime Milwaukee County DA Chisolm sought to send fewer Wisconsin residents to prison while maintaining public safety - amid an unprecedented influx of crime in Milwaukee County.
To combat the crime wave, Chisolm enlisted the help of the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York-based nonprofit group that works with leaders in government and civil settings 'to improve the services people rely on for safety and justice,' according to the organization's website.
Its website explicitly says that Vera opposes cash bail. Advocates say the measure unfairly penalizes the poorest, and results in disproportionate numbers of ethnic minority suspects in jails awaiting trial. But opponents say the measure often results in career criminals being immediately released back onto the streets to commit more offenses, with the measure partially-blamed for NYC's ongoing crime spike.
Milwaukee County still imposes cash bail rules. But through this coalition with Vera, Chisolm also looked to address the prevailing racial disparities in incarcerations in the predominantly white county, with Wisconsin leading the nation in black incarcerations.
Vera Institute President Nicholas Turner hailed Chisholm's efforts in the 2015 New Yorker piece.
He said: 'For a long time, prosecutors have defined themselves through conviction rates and winning the big cases with the big sentences. But the evidence is certainly tipping that the attainment of safety and justice requires more than just putting people in prison for a long time.
'Prosecutors have to redefine their proper role in a new era. Chisholm stuck his neck out there and started saying that prosecutors should also be judged by their success in reducing mass incarceration and achieving racial equality.”
According to data compiled by the Milwaukee Employment & Training Institute reveals, more than half of all African-American males in their 30s and 40s residing in the state of Wisconsin have at some point served a stint in state prisons.
But Chisolm's 'experiment,' as the New Yorker called it in a 2015 piece detailing the progressive policy, has been largely unsuccessful.
Since the early days of the pandemic, the county that Chisolm has overseen for the past 14 years has seen crime rates - especially those of the violent sort - soar to startling new levels.
Homicide rates, for instance, have seen a nearly hundred per cent increase between 2019 and 2020, rocketing from 97 murders two years ago to 190 last year.
Homicide rates have seen a nearly hundred per cent increase between 2019 and 2020 in Milwaukee County, rocketing from 97 murders two years ago to 190 last year.
Since the early days of the pandemic, the county that Chisolm has overseen for the past 14 years has seen crime rates - especially those of the violent sort - soar to startling new levels
And in 2021, the Wisconsin county is poised to see just as many homicides as there were the year before, during the height of the pandemic, with 173 murders taking place so far this year - the exact same amount there were at the same stage of 2020. Assaults are up in Milwaukee County - which boasts more than a sixth of Wisconsin's overall population - as well, data from the Milwaukee Police Department shows, from 5,746 in 2019 to 7,235 in 2020, an increase of 26 per cent.
This year, the state is set to see even more violent attacks, with 6,810 recorded thus far in 2021 - nearly 500 more than there were at this point last year.
crime rates in Milwaukee County are up as a whole, spiking from 23,492 incidents in 2019 to more than 30,000 so far this year
Motor vehicle thefts, however, saw the starkest increase from 2019 to this year, with instances of automobile thievery shooting up by more than 1,000 from 2019 to 2020, from 3,487 to 4,509 - an amount that has since more than doubled this year, to 9,416 incidents, a 270 per cent increase since 2019.
Moreover, crime rates in Milwaukee County are up as a whole, spiking from 23,492 incidents in 2019 to 26,583 in 2020, an increase of more than 3,000, incidents, and again in 2021, with more than 4,500 further infractions recorded so far this year - despite there still being more than a month left until the year ends.
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