Man pleads not guilty to charges for bicyclist's death on Alexis Road; bond hearing set

A Lucas County judge has scheduled a bond hearing for Monday for a man charged with the July 30 death of a bicyclist he allegedly struck on Alexis Road and then fled the scene.

Prosecutors moved last week to increase the bond for Kenneth Pegler, 55, of the 900 block of Mildred Avenue in Temperance, from $100,000 to $500,000 on the grounds he is a flight risk based on statements he made in jailhouse phone calls and tips Toledo police received on their Crime Stoppers hot line stating he planned to flee to Canada.

After entering not guilty pleas on his client’s behalf Thursday afternoon in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, defense lawyer Jerome Phillips told Judge Dean Mandros that facts in the prosecutors’ motion were either unsubstantiated or, regarding a statement about Pegler owning property in Canada, false.

Judge Mandros scheduled the bond hearing for 11 a.m. Monday and in the interim continued a $750,000 bond he had set Friday in Pegler’s absence following his indictment Thursday by a Lucas County grand jury.

Pegler is charged with alternative counts of aggravated vehicular homicide with impairment, two counts of failure to stop after an accident, and one count of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or both for the death of Nicholas Reinhart, 30.

Reinhart was westbound in the 200 block of East Alexis Road when he was hit from behind about 2:40 a.m. and dragged beneath the striking vehicle before becoming dislodged “many feet later,” according to the prosecutors’ bond motion, and landing in the street’s westbound curb lane. A following driver found him after swerving to avoid debris in the roadway and called 911, but Reinhart died shortly thereafter at Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center.

His bond was initially set in Toledo Municipal Court at $100,000, but last week county prosecutors moved for its increase to $500,000 on the basis of his statement in a recorded phone call that he intended, upon posting bond, to resume driving even though his driver’s license was suspended, while tipsters described options he has available to him to flee the area.

Pegler has several prior impaired-driving convictions and has a case pending in Monroe County in which he is accused of fleeing the scene after drunkenly crashing a vehicle into a house last year, injuring two occupants.