ROCHESTER, NY (WHEC) — News10NBC is staying on top of our investigation as to why a 21-year-old arrested in a robbery that included assaulting a store clerk and a police chase walked out of court without bail. Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean helps us understand why by getting the list of every crime that does have bail.
The list is 16 pages long and alphabetical with more than 270 charges where bail can be set under some or any circumstance. Towards the end are the robberies, and that’s where this story comes in.
The three people accused of leading police on a chase after robbing a Quicklees in Irondequoit were charged with second degree robbery, section 160.10, subsection one. A judge can only set bail for this charge if the crime was sexually motivated or a crime of terrorism. Neither of those apply to what happened Tuesday night.
So, the only thing Irondequoit Town Judge Brian Green could do was release 21-year-old Khalique Watts with an ankle bracelet. When Berkeley interviewed Irondequoit Police Chief Scott Peters about this, he asked him about Watts.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Do you think he ought to be in custody?”
Chief Scott Peters, Irondequoit Police: “Of course he should.”
Peters also noted that Watts has a prior conviction for an attempted robbery and was arrested on a bunch of other robbery charges last year.
Interestingly, subsections two and three of second-degree robbery are bail eligible with no conditions. Only subsection one is not, and that’s the charge the suspects got who were arrested Tuesday night.
“Why do you think the state legislature said two sections of second degree robbery are bail eligible but the first section isn’t?” Berkeley asked Peter Pullano, attorney at Tully Rinckey.
“The way the robbery second statute is drafted, that first section is pretty much a robbery in the third-degree, but there happens to be a second person present,” Pullano said. “It’s a more encompassing statute that could cover a lot of different activity much of which would be just like a robbery third degree, probably not the type of thing that we need or want the detention.”
