Court denies bond modification for Bahr

Kussel grants time-extension to find defender
By: 
Luke Reimer
Reporter

Tracy A. Bahr, 39, Pulaski, was in court Oct. 25 for a status conference relating to an Aug. 10 arrest.

Bahr was charged Aug. 10 with with one count of failure to comply with an officer’s attempt to be taken into custody, two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, 22 counts of bail jumping, one count of possession of THC with intent (greater than 200 grams), one count of possession of methamphetamine, one misdemeanor count of resisting or obstructing an officer, seven misdemeanor counts of bail jumping and three misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Bahr appeared from the Shawano County Jail over Zoom, without a public defender. Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court Judge William Kussel Jr. said that Bahr is not eligible for public defender services and questioned him about his status on hiring an attorney.

“No, I don’t have the money to,” said Bahr.

Kussel then asked Bahr about the home that he owns, asking if he could get a loan on the house.

“My fiance has tried numerous different lenders to try and get a loan, in which she was unsuccessful, because she does not have enough earning,” said Bahr.

Kussel followed up by asking if there is a possibility that Bahr could sell the house.

“No — then she would have nowhere to live with the children,” said Bahr, about a possible sale of the house.

Kussel extended Bahr’s time to find an attorney, something that Bahr said he is having difficulty doing while incarcerated.

“I think that you need to work with your fiance to find out how you can raise some of the money for that attorney,” said Kussel.

Also during Bahr’s appearance in court, Kussel took up a bond-motion that was filed on Oct. 14. At Bahr’s Sept. 6 appearance in court, Kussel reduced the cash bond from $75,000 t0 $25,000 with an added $100,000 signature bond.

”I am just looking for the cash part to be reduced to $5,000 with the $100,000 signature — that is $105,000 in bonds and that should clearly be enough to secure that I will show up to court,” said Bahr. “If I am able to bond out then I can be working and then I can hire this attorney.”

Assistent District Attorney Laura Nelson said that Bahr currently has seven open cases in Shawano County and noted that Bahr argued similarily in a previous bond motion, which was denied.

“Nothing has changed — he indicated the same thing essentially,” said Nelson.

Nelson walked through charges that Bahr is facing in two separate cases in the county, including the failure to comply with an officer’s attempt to be taken into custody.

“Mr. Bahr can say that he will appear for future appearances until he is blue in the face, however his record reflects that he is not only uncoopoerative with law enforcement officers — he fails to abide by court orders and he demonstrates that with extreme prejudice,” said Nelson. “The only way that he will be compliant is if there is a high cash bond, not a high signature bond, but a high cash bond.”

Kussel denied the bond modification and set a status conference for Nov. 23 at 1:30 p.m.


lreimer@newmedia-wi.com