FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—The “hysteria” that followed the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting cannot justify the “outrageous” bond imposed on Zachary Cruz in a misdemeanor trespassing case, his lawyer argued in court papers filed Thursday.
“Zachary Cruz should not be in a jail cell,” defense attorney Joseph Kimok said in a 17-page petition seeking a reduction in Cruz’s $500,000 bond. Kimok invoked the Constitution, the Founding Fathers and the Salem witch trials in his argument that the bond amount violated his client’s rights and cannot be allowed to stand.
“The Constitution is at its strongest when we are hurting and our emotions are frayed and we are tempted to lock up anyone that makes us feel even remotely uncomfortable,” he wrote.
Cruz, 18, is the brother of Nikolas Cruz, who is charged with 17 counts of murder for the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the Parkland high school.
Zachary Cruz was arrested Monday for trespassing on the school grounds. When he was arrested, he told a detective that it was his third visit to the campus since the shooting and that he wanted to reflect on what his brother had done.
Broward County Judge Kim Theresa Mollica set the $500,000 bond on Tuesday, citing the need to protect the Stoneman Douglas community.
Trespassing is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by only 60 days in jail, and the standard bond in similar cases is $25, Kimok noted. Someone had posted the $25 the night Cruz was arrested, but he remained in custody for 15 hours before being brought to first appearance court to face Mollica.
“The state and the court simply acted as though the previous bond that Mr. Cruz had posted never existed,” Kimok wrote.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office said in an email Thursday that Cruz was held on the judge’s orders “to determine release conditions.”
“Every minute that Mr. Cruz has been held in the custody of the Broward Sheriff’s Office since posting his bond has been unlawful and unconstitutional,” Kimok wrote.
The conditions Mollica set, Kimok argued, were as outrageous as the bond. They included an ankle monitor, an order to stay a mile away from Stoneman Douglas and 500-feet from any school, no contact with his brother and no entry into Broward County except to see his lawyer or for court appearances.
But Kimok saved his strongest words for criticizing the bail amount. Mollica had already determined that Cruz was indigent, he noted, so there was no way he could afford to post a $500,000 bond.
He added that Cruz issued no threat, did not carry weapons onto the school campus, and fully cooperated with the deputies who arrested him.
“There is no justice where the government seeks to hang a man for the crimes of his brother,” Kimok wrote.
In court on Tuesday, prosecutor Sarahnell Murphy said Cruz “has all the same flags present” as his brother — both lost their father in 2004 and their mother last November.
But unlike the accused school schooter, Zachary Cruz committed no crime worthy of such a high bond and stringent pre-trial conditions, Kimok said.
The misdemeanor case is assigned to County Judge Mindy Brown, who has not set a date to rule on the motion.
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PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194):FLA-SCHOOLSHOOTING-TRESPASS
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