Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris promoted a bail fund that helped a man accused of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old child get out of jail, court documents show.
Jail records showed he was arrested in June and later released from a Minneapolis jail on $75,000 bail in early July, and subsequently filed a document asking the court to have his refunded bail money returned to the Minneapolis Freedom Fund (MFF), which showed that the fund contributed to his release.
The man was a registered predatory offender for a separate incident prior to his arrest.
In the post, Harris provided a link in the post to the fundraising page which contains her picture. The page continues to accept donations as of the time of this article’s publication.
Harris’s Senate office and the Biden-Harris campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Richard Raynell Kelley, 53, then violated his bail just a week after his release, and there is now an active felony warrant out for his arrest, according to the outlet.
In late July, the MFF helped to bail out Lionel Timms, a man who faces a third-degree felony assault charge for having allegedly assaulted a person on a bus on July 11.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times on Sept. 23, the MFF said that it “believes that every individual who has been arrested by the police is innocent until proven guilty, and if a judge deems them eligible for bail, they should not have to wait in jail simply because they don’t have the same income or resources as others with more privilege.”
It alleges, “Pre-trial jailing uses captivity, deprivation, and the threat of lost jobs, housing, and child custody to pressure plea bargains in a way that undercuts their due process rights and harms communities.”
The MFF also told The Epoch Times, “we do not make determinations of bail support based on the crimes that individuals are alleged to have committed. We are, however, taking steps to strengthen our internal procedures for ensuring that those we bail out receive support, especially if they are in need of housing or medical treatment.”
“Practicing the right to free assembly is not a criminal act, and charges are not the same as convictions,” the bail fund added.
It contends, “We believe holding someone not convicted of a crime in jail during a pandemic represents an extreme measure, and that cash bail, which favors those who are white and wealthy, is not an appropriate tool to implement it.”
