Fulton DA wants BMW driver’s bond revoked
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, June 19, 2009
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard wants the bond revoked for the woman charged with the fiery and fatal Easter Sunday hit-and-run wreck because someone had reported the lights out at her house at a time when they should have been on.
In a filing in mid May, a defense attorney asked the court to modify the terms of Aimee Michael’s bond to allow her to leave her house to attend church services and to meet with her lawyer at his office. Michael, 22, was released on a $150,000 bond on May 8, but she is on 24-hour home confinement and must wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure she does not leave the house she shares with her mother.
Prosecutors countered Michael’s request for a bond modification by asking Superior Court Judge Kimberly Adams to send Michael back to jail or, at the very least, to order the monitoring company to alert the Fulton County sheriff and the prosecutor’s office if there is a signal Michael has left her house.
Howard said in an E-mail Friday his office “is not fundamentally opposed to church attendance. We do, however, oppose any activity outside of the home for this defendant because we believe she is an extreme flight risk based on her prior activity.”
Michael was arrested 10 days after the accident and is now charged with 15 felonies, including five counts of vehicular homicide and five counts of hit and run.
On an errand for her mother to get ice cream on April 12, Michael’s BMW struck another car on Camp Creek Parkway, causing a chain-reaction crash, police said. Four people from one family and a 6-year-old riding in another car were killed.
Police said Michael drove away from the devastation and hid the champagne-colored BMW in the garage when she got home. She told her family nothing about the wreck for two days, according to police.
Michael’s mother, Sheila Michael, is charged with tampering with evidence and hindering apprehension of a criminal for allegedly helping her daughter repair the car and hid the evidence. The second grade teacher is free on $50,000 bond, but she is not confined to her house.
As with the telephone tip to police that led to Aimee Michael’s arrest, the district attorney’s office got a call questioning whether she was complying with the court-ordered home confinement.
“The district attorney’s office received a report that the lights were off in [Michael’s] home at a time when they should have been visible to the public,” Howard said in the E-mail. “The citizen reported several hours later that the lights were still not on.”
Howard did not say what time of the day the “citizen” caller referenced.
Prosecutors contacted the monitoring service, Georgia House Arrest Services Inc. in Marietta, and learned that office was only staffed 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; a subcontractor monitors at night and on weekends.
The request filed by prosecutors also asked the judge to order Georgia House Arrest Services to make “frequent, random home inspections” to ensure Michael’s equipment is working.
Georgia House Arrest Services did not respond to three voice mail messages left Friday afternoon.
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