Yesterday, I posted about media reports about a bail hearing for Jeremy Giefer, adding my own experience in overhearing Giefer's relatives talk about contacting his victim. Tonight, KEYC-TV reports in Bail Raised in Jeremy Giefer Sex Abuse Case:
At a motion hearing yesterday Judge Bradley Walker was asked to determine whether Giefer violated the conditions of his bail release in two separate incidents...While no decision was made in those incidents, Walker did amend Giefer's order for release.The conditions include no contact with the victim or witnesses and GPS monitoring...Geifer's bail will remain at one million dollars without conditions but bail with conditions was raised from 250 thousand to 350 thousand.
Watch the clip at KEYC-TV. Yesterday, the Mankato Free Press reported more details about the hearing itself in Prosecutor: Giefer again violated no-contact order:
Apparently it can be a crime to say “I love you,” and those words are the latest twist in a criminal sexual conduct case that has garnered statewide attention each time Jeremy Allen Giefer appears in court.
Giefer, 37, is accused of sexually assaulting a girl more than 250 times over several years. His case became statewide news after it was learned that Giefer had been pardoned in 2008 for a 1994 criminal sexual conduct conviction.
One of the people who approved the pardon, which was issued while Giefer was allegedly assaulting his new victim, was Gov. Tim Pawlenty. The governor has since requested Giefer be investigated for perjury.
Giefer appeared in court Wednesday to request that his bail be reduced. He had posted a $250,000 bond and was released from jail after he was charged on Nov. 18. However, Giefer was arrested again and his bail was increased after he got too close to his alleged victim.
His attorney, Robert Docherty, said Giefer didn’t know his victim was in a car that was parked at a Mankato office building where the victim was scheduled to be on Dec. 2.
Chris Rovney, assistant Blue Earth County attorney, said the victim’s foster parents used a cell phone to warn Giefer to stay away from the victim, but he didn’t listen. . . .
What a surprise. About the jailhouse tape:
On Dec. 18, while in jail and talking to his wife on the telephone, Giefer told her to tell his victim that he loved her. The request was recorded by the jail’s audio surveillance system.
After Giefer was charged, he was ordered to have no direct or indirect contact with the victim. Rovney said Giefer’s message, even though it could sound harmless to some, is an attempt to regain control over his victim.
“I argued that the judge would be rewarding (Giefer) for bad acts if his bail is reduced,” Rovney said. “The message, ‘I love you,’ is not that message when it’s coming from a sex offender.”
A bad touch, indeed. Rovney's characterization of the manipulative request--which violated the no-contact order--gains more credence as one learns how Giefer's lawyer claims that the victim has told others nothing happened:
The victim is currently under the care of Blue Earth County Human Services. Docherty has asked Walker to issue an order allowing him to ask the victim if he can interview her.
The county is not allowing him to contact her, Docherty said. He has been told that the victim told relatives nothing happened.
Rovney argued against Docherty’s request. He said he’s concerned the victim could be pressured into changing her story, something she hasn’t done since talking to investigators.
“She has not retracted; not even close,” Rovney said. “I’m not aware that she has retracted her story to anyone. I think that’s just a figment of the (Giefer) family’s imagination.”
At the justice center one day, I listened to Giefer relatives talk about how no one would believe that girl about phone calls they made to her--then wonder whether she had the ability to record those calls--and come up with way they imagined would answer their question. Based on my own experience, I don't think the prosecutor and the judge are being too cautious.
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