Note: The following report is also available on CNN’s legal programs Wolf Blitzer Reports and Legal View.
Although the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department has announced an arrest of Darrell Levins Brooks, he does have a criminal history and he was arrested in 2011 for shooting into a group of people near a Walmart. He plead guilty to three counts of armed robbery but ended up with probation on each charge. He was also pulled over in August and charged with one count of being an armed party to a crime for allegedly breaking a cell phone.
Several bail reform advocates including civil liberties groups, law enforcement groups and even the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office have met numerous times with Gov. Waukesha County Sheriff David Clarke to discuss possible reforms. They’ve come to no resolutions, with Sheriff Clarke saying Thursday that it’s time to move on and focus on other more pressing matters of criminal justice reform.
“It is unbelievable that a person would be released in January with no previous record on a $5 million bails and now allegedly shot another human being,” said Sam Pirozzolo, spokesman for Americans for Democratic Action in a statement emailed to CNN. “I can’t imagine that anyone with a semblance of moral conscience would condone this atrocity.”