Mortgage Breach = Default On Bail Agreement, Says NJ Prosecutor In Move To Revoke Multiple-Slaying Suspect's Pre-Trial Release

In Newark, New Jersey, The Star Ledger reports:

• The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office has filed a motion to revoke Lee Anthony Evans’ bail, claiming the lead defendant in the decades-old slaying of five Newark teenage boys violated its terms by defaulting on a five-year commercial loan and failing to pay related property taxes. Last summer, Evans, 58, was released from jail after posting the $950,000 bail in the form of three pieces of property.

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• In his motion seeking to revoke Evans’ bail, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Guarino cited a Wells Fargo Bank foreclosure complaint filed against the defendant in June. That complaint came after the entire balance of Evans’ loan on [one] property came due in June without him having paid off any of it, Guarino said.

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• Because Evans "breached the terms of the mortgage agreement," Guarino wrote in his motion, he has also defaulted on one of the terms of the bail agreement, which was the "defendant’s ties to the community." Guarino added that the remaining two properties do not cover the bail amount.



• Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello in Newark has set a date of Aug. 26 to rule on the motion, which comes less than a month after she granted Evans the right to serve as his own attorney.

For the story, see Essex County Prosecutor's Office seeks to revoke bail for man accused in decades-old slaying of 5 Newark teens.