A Lucas County judge asked prosecutors Monday to arrange for testimony from Michigan State Police witnesses before deciding whether to make permanent a bond increase for a man charged with a bicyclist’s hit-skip death on Alexis Road last month.
Nicole Tucker, a Toledo police officer who went to the scene of the July 30 crash that killed Nicholas Reinhart, 30, and has investigated it since then, said Monday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court that the police department received several tips that Kenneth Pegler, 55, of Temperance, might flee to Canada or Florida once he posts bond and made vague references to such potential conduct during recorded jailhouse phone calls.
But under cross examination by defense lawyer Jerome Phillips, Officer Tucker conceded that Pegler did not say outright that he planned to flee, and she said all information related to a camper trailer also in Monroe County to which he and a daughter went later that week came from the state police.
Judge Dean Mandros said that while he increased Pegler’s bond to $750,000 during an Aug. 9 hearing based on a motion from prosecutors, that higher bond can’t stay in effect in the absence of solid new information being received after Toledo Municipal Court judge set bond at $100,000 during Pegler’s initial arraignment Aug. 5.
The Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office moved Aug. 9 for Pegler’s bond to be increased to $500,000 based on his alleged potential as a flight risk. Mr. Phillips countered both then and Monday that the motion’s supporting statements were either unsubstantiated or, in regard to Pegler’s family owning property in Canada, false.
The judge also heard Monday from Reinhart’s mother, Deanna Reinhart, who pleaded with the court to hike Pegler’s bond even higher to protect society from Pegler’s “multiple careless choices.”
“No amount of money is worth risking someone else’s life” by allowing him out on the streets, she said.
After about an hour of testimony and arguments, Judge Mandros continued the bond hearing to Friday morning.
Pegler had several prior drunken-driving convictions on Alexis Road and has charges pending in Michigan for a nighttime crash into a house last year that injured two occupants.
He is currently charged in Toledo with alternative counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, alternative counts of failure to stop at the scene of an accident, and operating a vehicle while impaired by alcohol, drugs, or both for the wee-hours crash in the 200 block of East Alexis Road. After striking Reinhart, police say, Pegler’s white Dodge Ram pickup truck dragged the bicyclist for about 40 feet before he was left in the roadway, where another driver found him and called 911.
Officer Tucker said in court Monday that police had multiple witnesses to and video recordings of the incident, after which the white pickup continued west on Alexis and then stopped briefly along Telegraph Road before continuing toward Pegler’s home in Michigan.
The Toledo officer said that while she unsuccessfully tried telephoning Pegler once the investigation pointed to him as a suspect, she did not go to either his home in the 900 block of Mildred Avenue or to the campground, the location of which she did not know. Michigan state troopers handled a campground visit Aug. 3 during which Pegler and the daughter are believed to have been in nearby woods, she said.
Officer Tucker said the recorded phone calls included discussions Pegler had about trying to sell his trailer, house, boat, and other belongings to raise money for bond, and to arrange for utilities to the house to be shut off and other recurring payments to be canceled. He also discussed buying a used pickup truck to be registered to and insured by his mother, because he could not risk driving any of the vehicles he already owned.
Police also received as many as 15 to 20 tips to their Crime Stopper line about the case, she said, and those were the sources that spoke of flight to Canada or Florida. The officer said under cross examination that police could not identify any out-of-area property belonging to Pegler but could neither confirm nor deny that any of his relatives might have such holdings because they did not have all potential family names.
Mr. Phillips said his client’s having turned himself in the Monday morning after his initial charges’ Saturday morning proved his sincerity. Officer Tucker said, however, that some defendants do flee after posting bond, and Judge Mandros noted that Pegler had multiple failure-to-appear charges in his record.
Still, the judge said, it is plausible that the financial arrangements Pegler discussed from the jailhouse could have been “trying to get his financial affairs in order” as an alternative inference to a plan to flee.
“I’m looking for more than just an inference” when there’s an equally innocent explanation, he said before continuing the hearing to Friday.
Local News
Comments / 0