Man in DUI case is free, may flee, prosecutor says
And two weeks ago the jury did find him guilty, but his father set him free Saturday.
The father of Robert VanDyke, who was convicted of drunken driving, walked into the Utah County Jail Saturday morning with a get-out-of-jail cashier's check for $100,000 and temporarily liberated his 42-year-old son.
The timing of the VanDyke family's move to post bail —11 days after his conviction and a month before his sentencing — appalled Johnson, who sees it as a perfect opportunity for the Springville man to escape future prison time from the latest of a long string of DUI-related convictions.
But the chance that VanDyke might flee is only one of Johnson's fears. He is nervous that VanDyke might continue his destructive course. The last time VanDyke posted bail for one of his arrests, he hit and killed a West Valley woman during a head-on drunken-driving accident, for which he served nearly five years in prison.
That case — and the rest of his four other alcohol-related convictions — led 4th District Judge Claudia Laycock to say she believed he was a "danger" to the community during a pretrial court hearing just before boosting his $2,500 bail. "I am going to change the bail in this matter," she ruled. "I tend to find that $100,000 cash is a bit dramatic ... but how much value do I put on someone else's life being sacrificed because of possible drinking (by) this man."
"So why now?" Johnson asked hours after VanDyke walked out of jail. "Why, if the family wanted to spend time with him, didn't they do this in the last four months? Because he's going to flee, that's why. Why else would you do such a thing?"
The Midvale-based jail-bond company that wrote the check, Hy and Mikes Bail Bonds, told the Deseret News its likely charge for the bond service was $10,000, or 10 percent.
"It just looks to me like he wanted to spend some time with his family before he goes away," said one of the company's bondsmen, who did not want to be named. "We get full collateral for all of it. And if he doesn't do exactly what we say, we'll bounty hunt his butt down."
Johnson said VanDyke's free time this weekend is really due to a sort of court loophole that could have been avoided if he would have taken a simple action a couple weeks sooner. He said he could have filed a motion to quash the possibility of VanDyke's bail after he was convicted in order to keep him from fleeing.
"But I didn't do it because he had all that time to get out," Johnson said. "So I just didn't expect him to do it now. His family even left him there for Christmas. And now that he's convicted and he has to face sentencing he's gone."
Johnson first heard about VanDyke's intentions on Wednesday when he received a call from the bondsmen asking for his opinion about their investment — the degree of VanDyke's flight risk. That same hour he filed a motion with the judge to order him back during a court hearing on Wednesday at 1:30.
"He won't show up," he said. "But we'll see."
E-mail: jhancock@desnews.com
Recent comments
As much as I despise this Van Dyke dude, he had every legal right...
Jumping to conclusions | April 20, 2008 at 6:48 p.m.
Registry? Right. And let's have one for j-walkers, speeders,...
tj-tibbs | April 20, 2008 at 2:55 p.m.
We're pretty quick to say "Lock'em up and throw away...
Don | April 20, 2008 at 10:11 a.m.
