Bail fund backed by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden staffers bailed out alleged child abuser, docs indicate
From WWW.FOXNEWS.COM
A bail fund promoted by Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and many staffers on Joe Biden's campaign helped release an accused child abuser, documents obtained by Fox News indicate.
Timothy Wayne Columbus, a 36-year-old-man, is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly penetrating a girl in 2015 when she was about 8 years old. A warrant was issued for his arrest on June 25. But he was later bailed out of jail and according to a court document, filed to have his bail money returned to Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF), the organization Harris and many Biden staffers asked their followers to donate to during the rioting in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The story was first reported by Alpha News MN and The Daily Caller.
"If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota," Harris tweeted on June 1.
The allegations against Columbus are macabre. The arrest warrant in the case states that the girl Columbus allegedly assaulted lived with her grandmother, who regularly spent time with her friend "Tim," while the girl was seven and eight years old. When the girl was about eight, the victim told police, "'Tim' laid her on her couch and held her down as he unbuckled his pants and then pulled down her pants. Victim stated he then 'put his thing inside me.'"
The warrant continues: "Victim states 'Tim' told her not to tell anyone and continued to penetrate her. Victim did not tell anyone what happened at the time but years later told a family member."
The warrant also says that the grandmother said she has seen Columbus tell the girl "This is our secret" at one point and that the grandmother suspected Columbus had hurt the girl in some way. The girl's mother said 'she learned years later 'something happened.'"
The maximum sentence for the crimes Columbus is accused of is 30 years in prison. Columbus denied the allegations to police.
Bail money is essentially collateral to ensure a person shows up for future court dates. If a person pays bail, then appears for their court dates, that money is refunded. When bail funds like MFF pay bail for people, they have the defendants -- in this case Columbus -- sign documents requesting that the money be returned to the fund. This allows the bail funds to then use the money to pay somebody else's bail in the future, unless a defendant does not show up for their court date. Then the bail fund simply loses the money.
In Columbus' case, bail was set at $75,000 for conditional release and $300,000 for unconditional release. The document on which Columbus requests his bail money be returned to MFF does not indicate the amount. But a July 1 order recorded on the Minnesota courts website indicates that Judge Tamara Garcia ordered Columbus' conditional release.
Columbus is not the first alleged violent criminal MFF has helped secure the release of.
FOX 9 reported earlier this summer that MFF had raised $35 million in the wake of George Floyd's death in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department. A recent update on its website i... (Read more)
Tweets mentioned:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1267555018128965643
Submitted 1310 days ago
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