Click the link below to subscribe to SPECIAL REPORTS from the Niagara Reporter

http://eepurl.com/dnsYM9

By: Staff Reporter

The Niagara County District Attorney’s Office released the following statement on behalf of D.A. Brian Seaman regarding the release of Michael Mesko from the Niagara County Jail prior to his abduction of a 17-year-old girl:

Michael Mesko was charged on February 4th with the crimes of Rape in the Second Degree and Criminal Sexual Act in the Second Degree.  When he was arraigned we asked for $10,000 cash bail.  The Court set bail at $1,000.  Faced with the inevitable release of the defendant given the bail amount my office determined not to subject our witnesses to testimony and cross-examination at a preliminary hearing.  This resulted in the defendant’s release on February 10th.

The function of a preliminary hearing is for the court to determine whether there is enough evidence to continue to hold a defendant in custody on bail.  My office often has to weigh the cost of running the hearing, which is subjecting witnesses to testimony and cross-examination that can be quite uncomfortable, against the benefit of continuing the bail if the hearing is successful.

In this case, my office determined that given the bail amount, and the very high likelihood that the defendant would be able to post that bail in short order, it would not make sense to subject our witnesses to the preliminary hearing.  Simply stated, we did not want to have to subject our witnesses to uncomfortable testimony, only to have the defendant get out by posting $1,000 a day or two later.

These decisions are made on a regular basis by DA’s Offices, and it is not unusual for a defendant to be released rather than run a preliminary hearing, particularly when the bail amount involved is low.