A September trial has been scheduled for a Suring man who was arrested in Texas last summer after he allegedly fled the state to avoid trial on child sex abuse charges.
Michael James Bullock, 41, is charged in three separate criminal files. The next order of business is determining whether the jury should consider all three cases during the trial, which Oconto County Judge Michael Judge scheduled for Sept. 16-18 during a brief court hearing on March 3.
Bullock was charged in July 2022 with two counts of the repeated sexual assault of the same child in connection with alleged incidents dating back to 2010.
Two months later, he was charged with three counts of invading privacy by using a surveillance device against a victim younger than 18 years old, along with three counts of capturing an intimate representation, in connect with an allegation Bullock positioned a hidden camera in a bathroom and recorded intimate video of a teenaged girl showering.
The third file charges Bullock with felony bail jumping. He was scheduled to stand trial starting July 31 and was free on bail with a condition that he wear an ankle bracelet. He is accused of slipping out of the bracelet on July 2 and leaving the state.
The criminal complaint in that case alleges Bullock was spotted at an RV park in Texas two weeks later by a citizen who happened to see an Oconto County Sheriff’s Office social media post asking for information about the suspect’s whereabouts.
When Bullock was brought back into an Oconto County courtroom on Aug. 5, Judge revoked his bail and set a new cash bond of $1.5 million. He has been at the Oconto County Jail since then.
During the March 3 hearing, Assistant District Attorney Richard Zoellner said the state expects to file a motion to consolidate the cases for purposes of trial, and defense attorney Eric Steven Maciolek said he would challenge consolidation and ask Bullock stand trial for one or another of the 2022 allegations along with the bail jumping charge.
Judge gave prosecutors until March 21 to file the consolidation motion and the defense until April 18 to file any written response. He scheduled a motion hearing for 2 p.m. April 28.
A final pre-trial conference was scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 2.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
Suspect who fled state to stand trial Sept. 16
