"DAMN IT!" — Judge ERUPTS After Discovery Of "Hidden" Bond Violation Report!

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:03]Good morning, sir. You Robert Baird?

[00:00:05]Yes.

[00:00:06]Here with your lawyer, Jordan Harden.

[00:00:09]Uh you pled to a domestic assault upon Grace Shaw, someone you had a dating relationship with.

[00:00:18]Um that allegedly occurred on January 22nd in Park Township.

[00:00:24]Uh the matter was set for sentencing this morning.

[00:00:27]Um Ms. Harden, what would you like me to know?

[00:00:32]Thank you, Honor. Um in negotiating a resolution to this case, we had discussed that Mr. Baird is eligible for the statutory deferral. Um he does not have a criminal record, never been in trouble. Um and I believe Mr. Baird and the situation is exactly the kind of situation the statute intended to take into account when providing this second chance to an individual. Um Well, we have the same problem this case.

[00:01:02]Um I got this as part of my file. I don't know whether you guys have it.

[00:01:08]Tues- Thursday, February 5th, troopers were dispatched regarding a harassment complaint of telephone calls conducted there with Grace Shaw. Grace reported her ex-boyfriend, Robert Baird, has been harassing her during phone calls and FaceTime calls that are intended solely for communication with their child.

[00:01:28]Grace stated that she she created a Facebook account to allow Robert to speak with the child as the court-ordered communication requires.

[00:01:37]During these calls, Robert will speak with the child, but then begin observing her through the FaceTime.

[00:01:43]Robert questions her about her as other items as he sees in the home, asks whether she's sleeping with someone or has another man in the house.

[00:01:52]This behavior is ongoing.

[00:01:55]I did not receive any bond violation.

[00:01:58]There's also a PPO in effect. [snorts] So, there's the same allegation here that he's violating the conditions of his bond.

[00:02:04]>> Your honor, we'll state February 5th was the day prior to the initial attorney pre-trial. Um it was not made aware to me at that time. Um we had the secondary pre-trial in March where this case was resolved in the plea.

[00:02:16]Um I did receive Friday from the victim's rights coordinator um the victim impact statement. No mention of these violations, no indication >> have this report, Abigail? I don't, Your Honor. What the heck?

[00:02:31]Um well, it makes a difference.

[00:02:35]Um we're going to have to continue this also.

[00:02:40]Um this would be a problem on my part if the people are filing this with the court, they simply go in the court file.

[00:02:49]Um February 5th, um I'm not sure what date it was placed in here, but they they don't tell anybody.

[00:02:59]And I would ask that we proceed if that's not been provided to the prosecutor or myself. We've entered a plea in good faith ever since that >> Did you get the victim impact statement?

[00:03:10]>> that Friday.

[00:03:11]All right. What's your thought on that, Abigail?

[00:03:15]I would rather continue the sentence, Your Honor, if the defendant violated his violated his bond at any time, then I would I I guess I would object to uh the deferral.

[00:03:27]Well, and it's important. So, then we got to figure it out. Well, at this point, if the allegation is that during a a scheduled court-ordered phone contact with his child that the victim didn't like what he had to say, I don't know if that would constitute as I don't I don't either.

[00:03:45]Um I can't tell. I mean, we're going on 2 months. She's not indicated any such in her in her statement. She's [clears throat] appeared for every court date.

[00:03:58]Um I think he's eligible for the deferral. I think the deferral is the appropriate resolution. Um And if these bond violations are being submitted to the prosecuting attorney there at a disciplinary as well cuz they can investigate callers or It is somewhat hard to pin down. Like he said, she said kind of thing. But my bigger concern is these things get filed in here and nothing is [clears throat] done with them.

[00:04:27]That's an institutional problem on my part.

[00:04:35]I mean, I guess my argument would be, Your Honor, I don't I don't know why we can't continue with sentencing today.

[00:04:39]It's not an allegation of assaultive or you know, physical contact. It's Well, the prosecutor's withdrawn their recommendation for a deferral. Well, she indicated if there has been a bond violation. We have a report submitted 2 months ago. There's been zero follow-up on it. Nothing from the victim indicating that she's had this contact or that she wants to pursue it and past that. I That's a legitimate issue, except somebody may have dropped the ball, which is me.

[00:05:07]Um the thing got filed with the court and I can't tell that we did anything with it.

[00:05:15]Um And the prosecutor would have had an opportunity to respond.

[00:05:24]Um It's a I guess my argument would be, Your Honor, is I don't think it's fair to essentially punish my client for this as you can definitely see he's emotional he's been emotionally preparing for this. He's been nervous. Um you know, he'd like to get this >> Paul, do you got a problem? You got a beast I've got a I've got to leave here soon cuz I've got to go back to White Pigeon and then be back here by 2:00 for staff conference.

[00:05:56]All right, we're going to bump this.

[00:05:59]Um If it is my responsibility to forward these, I don't want it to be.

[00:06:10]Uh it got put in the file. No one brought it to my attention.

[00:06:15]It was just in here when I looked at it.

[00:06:18]Uh Jordan, I appreciate your perspective here.

[00:06:26]And I would be willing to just proceed, but now the prosecutor doesn't agree to the deferral, which was part of the plea agreement.

[00:06:36]>> Right, if she's going to pull that off, we need to withdraw plea and set the matter for trial.

[00:06:39]>> Well, we can we haven't gotten there yet, but that would be his right.

[00:06:46]And I will be honest, Your Honor. Yes.

[00:06:50]In reviewing the bond violation that the court sent, I I don't even see where the allegation is.

[00:06:56]>> Well, there's a second page coming.

[00:06:59]Right. It just Okay.

[00:07:02]It just lists the conditions of the bond.

[00:07:03]>> This report will be forwarded to the prosecutor's office for review is what it says. And if law enforcement didn't do that, I would argue that we're in a bad position.

[00:07:12]>> don't have that violation of bond order or report from uh trooper Mohammed?

[00:07:24]You don't see it in there? I don't, Your Honor, no.

[00:07:28]You're I don't know, Jordan, whether it rises to the level of a something or not.

[00:07:34]But we're going to have to do the same thing.

[00:07:40]Do the sentence.

[00:07:44]To I don't have a date.

[00:07:56]What's the date they do have a child in common? So, he's not been able to see his child since >> Yes, that's all in there.

[00:08:02]Uh >> [snorts] >> Um I'm going to contact Jordan. You're available Thursday, April 9th?

[00:08:13]>> [snorts] >> In the morning, say 9:30?

[00:08:19]Um I will make myself available to discuss with Mr. Baird.

[00:08:31]9:30?

[00:08:34]Mr. Baird, I'm not saying that I'm not going to follow through on the original agreement, but we need more information.

[00:08:42]Prosecutor, according to the police, he said he sent it to them, but she said she didn't get it.

[00:08:48]The court got it.

[00:08:50]Uh your lawyer didn't get it. So, we're going to pause.

[00:08:55]Um They can contact the complainant, see whether she just wants this to go forward with a deferred sentence, which would make life easier, but uh And you know, you you mentioned that there's a PPO. Yes. Okay. Do you have a date on that? My client hasn't been served with anything, so he was not aware. It's in those pleadings I sent you.

[00:09:24]Maybe the officer just called it a PPO.

[00:09:27]All right.

[00:09:29]Yeah, I don't see anything in the circuit or [clears throat] case search. I think he's referring to the bond as a PPO.

[00:09:37]Okay. I just wanted to ensure that if there was something out there he was aware of it and it was properly served.

[00:09:42]>> Okay.

[00:09:47]All right, it was heard and I appreciate you're making yourself available. Thank you.

[00:09:53]In the meantime, Abigail, you can have your staff get a hold of Ms. Shaw and the trooper for that matter and find out what their perspective is on this.

[00:10:06]But I can't go forward without more information.

[00:10:13]You do have a child in common and [snorts] there's a special app that allows contact.

[00:10:21]It's a texting only app that was referenced, so he can't I mean the child's fairly young, so it's not Well, this was a a special FaceTime on a Facebook account.

[00:10:31]>> Right. And I don't know what the terms of their custody agreement is of her their orders there. Um he's got independent counsel for that and I'm not sure how they're pursuing or handling that aspect of things.

[00:10:44]Yeah, it does mention a PPO. All right, we'll follow up on this. Maybe we'll get there.

[00:10:49]Maybe we won't. I hope [snorts] we can.

[00:10:52]And I need to follow up on what is my office do when they get bond violation reports besides stick them in the file.

[00:10:59]Um although this says on its face it was sent to the prosecutor's office.