A judge rejected a Lake County deputy prosecutor’s bid Wednesday to double Richard Yakel’s bond to $15,000 for allegedly driving drunk against the Lake Station Independence Day parade.
Yakel, 56, of Portage, is charged with felony battery by means of a deadly weapon, criminal recklessness, resisting law enforcement and four misdemeanor counts that include resisting law enforcement, operating while intoxicated, and reckless driving.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors also filed Tuesday to add a Habitual Vehicular Substance Offender, which would add one to eight more years if he is convicted since it’s his fourth OWI case.
His trial is currently set for December.
In testimony, Lake Station Police Officer Chance Boney recapped what happened at the July 3 parade.
Charging documents allege Yakel came “extremely close” to hitting several groups of people, clipped Lake Station Fire Chief Chuck Fazekas’ back with his vehicle’s mirror and came two feet from hitting a three-year-old girl collecting candy in the grass.
His BAC was 0.355%, the detective said – over four times the legal limit.
Deputy Prosecutor Madeline Clement argued Yakel was a flight risk and danger to the community.
Defense lawyer Lonnie Randolph II retorted that paying a $150,000, or $15,000 cash bond, was setting the bar so high that no reasonable person could afford it — essentially keeping any poor person in jail.
He admitted Yakel had OWI cases from 1994, 2008 and 2014. Clement argued it was a pattern.
Judge Salvador Vasquez agreed with Randolph, saying he couldn’t remember a move to hike a bond like that in over a decade. However, if Yakel posted bond, he ordered him to be on a SCRAM monitor to track his drinking and home detention.
Randolph also argued his client’s SUV could have had “mechanical problems” that explained why he didn’t stop when a police officer tried to pull him over. Vasquez ordered that the vehicle be checked out at a Portage home at a later date.
Anyone with more information on the incident can contact Officer Boney at cboney@lakestation-in.gov.
