MONROE COUNTY, Ill. – Upcoming hearings loom for two suspects who were a part of a strong-arm robbery that led several police departments on a chase that spanned multiple counties.
It took the help of multiple counties and a K-9 to take two people into custody for a stolen vehicle. Several charges are pending for the driver, 29-year-old Dakota Bowman, after drugs were recovered from inside the car.
However, the other suspect in the car, 25-year-old Samantha Hamelmann, is back on the streets due to the state’s new “no cash bail” system, which went into effect last week.
“Unless it is a specific enumerated offense, you have to actually make an application for the class of felony and provide (reason) that particular defendant provides a risk to the community at large,” Monroe County State’s Attorney Ryan Webb said.
Webb said his office sought to overturn its passage in the Illinois Legislature.
“There are additional hoops that we have to jump through in order to keep someone detained who should be detained,” Webb said.
But what about the officers who work to make an arrest, just to see an offender back out on the streets?
“We’ve had this individual that, you know, obviously had committed several violent crimes: robbery, aggravating fleeing and alluding, and armed violence, possibly,” Monroe County Sheriff Neil Rohlfing said.
Bowman will have his detention hearing on Wednesday, Sept. 27. As for Hamelmann, she’ll face her preliminary hearing on Thursday, Oct. 12.