Man accused of raping 2d child while free on bail
A man accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl in Kingston this weekend had been charged this summer with raping another child. But Joseph Gardner, 26, had been released on $10,000 cash bail and was free when he allegedly attacked the second victim on Friday, according to police and court records.
The Plymouth District Attorney's office had asked for bail as high as $200,000 after Gardner was accused in August of breaking into the home of someone he knew and raping a 5-year-old girl as she slept. But prosecutors did not ask for a dangerousness hearing, which could have allowed a judge to keep Gardner behind bars until his trial. Bail is designed to guarantee that a suspect returns to court and is not a mechanism to keep a suspect incarcerated.
Without a dangerousness hearing, Gardner was able to go free when two separate judges set his bail at $10,000 cash. Gardner's mother paid the money on Oct. 8, court records show. On Friday night, Gardner is accused of raping a 3-year-old child in his home and then telling her he would kill her father if she told anyone.
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