A Suring man, arrested in Texas last month after he allegedly slipped out of his GPS ankle bracelet and fled from Oconto County authorities, is due back in court Sept. 6 for a preliminary hearing on the newest charge.
Michael James Bullock, 41, had been scheduled to stand trial beginning July 31 on two counts of the repeated sexual assault of a child, as well as several counts stemming from allegedly stationing a hidden camera in a bathroom and recording intimate video of a young woman showering.
Bullock was free after posting a total of $40,000 cash bond, with a condition of his bail being that he wear the ankle bracelet at all times. The criminal complaint alleges that on July 2, the woman who owns the house where he was staying found the bracelet hanging from a hook in the bathroom.
Investigators said the inside of the bracelet was coated with a Vaseline-like substance, making it slippery. Bullock also left his cellphone behind and had run it through a factory reset, according to the complaint.
Two weeks later, the suspect was spotted at an RV park in Texas by a concerned citizen who happened to see an Oconto County Sheriff’s Office social media post asking for information about Bullock’s whereabouts.
When Bullock was brought back into an Oconto County courtroom on Aug. 5, Judge Michael Judge revoked his bail and set a new cash bond of $1.5 million. During a brief follow-up appearance Aug. 19, Judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for 10 a.m. Sept. 6.
The pending charges against Bullock allege that he sexually assaulted two women, who are now 19 and 26 years old, for several years each beginning when they were as young as about 7 and 10. In the case involving the hidden camera, he is charged with three counts each of invasion of privacy using a surveillance device and capturing an intimate representation of a victim younger than 18, in connection with incidents that allegedly occurred when one of the young women was 17 years old.
Bullock also has a pending case in Kewaunee County, where he is charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault of a child younger than 13 and a count of second-degree sexual assault of a child. A new complaint alleging felony bail jumping has also been filed in that county in connection with his flight to Texas.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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