Update: On January 17, Circuit Judge Terence Perkins granted the prosecution’s motion to deny Robert Goldstein bond. Goldstein refused to appear in court for the hearing.
The prosecution argued before a judge today that Robert Goldstein, the 64-year-old Palm Coast resident who briefly fondled an 11-year-old girl at Walmart while her mother was not looking, is too dangerous to be let out of jail on bond pending trial. But a decision is not expected until Jan. 17, giving Goldstein time to bail out.
Goldstein is being held at the Flagler County jail on $8,500 bond on charges of child abuse and battery stemming from two incidents that took place within 72 hours, one of them involving the girl. The other involves an assault against a health care worker at AdventHealth Palm Coast. (See: “Face-Recognition Software Leads to Man Accused in Pair of Disturbing Incidents Involving a Woman and a Girl.”)
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins agreed not to rule on the state’s motion this afternoon because of more bizarre if self-inflicted twists in Goldstein’s case: he repeatedly refused to be taken to the courthouse today for his hearing, demanding to go to the hospital and complaining of many aches and pains, he declined to meet with his attorney–assistant public defender Regina Nunnally–who herself got video of the Walmart incident only an hour before today’s hearing. She asked the judge to delay his decision until later this month, when she will have had the chance to meet Goldstein.
Judging from today’s hearing, where evidence presented was not insubstantial, Nunnally may return with motions to suppress a Goldtsein interview with detectives about the touching of the girl, because he was never read his Miranda rights when questioned, and the slight possibility of a motion on Goldtsein’s competence to stand trial: “I haven’t talked to him about anything about this. I’m not even sure he knows what’s going on,” Nunnally told the judge. The rules, she said, allows for a continuance so the defense can be adequately prepared.
Goldstein was initially arrested on Jan. 2 at the hospital where he grabbed a health care worker who was trying to walk him out of a restricted area, and pinned her against the wall. While he was at the jail, detectives determined that he was the suspect in the disturbing incident at Walmart, where mother and child had been shopping in the meat and poultry section when, in a brief moment when the child’s mother was selecting some items, Goldstein allegedly fondled the head and shoulders of the girl. The girl at first thought it was her mother’s touch, then was startled and frightened to see it was a stranger. Goldstein quickly walked away, winking at her.
He told detectives that he’d been sexually frustrated all his life, but had never done something like that. Clark said that’s not true, referring to a third-degree misdemeanor conviction in New York State for “sexual abuse in the third degree.” She did not say when the misdemeanor took place, or if Goldstein’s victim was a child, and Stacy Santos, the sheriff’s detective who investigated the case and who testified today, told Nunnally she did not know, either.
Still, Clark argued, child abuse qualifies as a “dangerous crime” in Florida, and there is, according to her motion, “a substantial probability” based on Goldstein’s behavior that he poses a threat to the community.
Clark had Santos testify to the investigation, showing the brief video surveillance clip at Walmart and playing a nine-minute audio-recorded interview with Goldstein at the jail. Nunnally made much of the fact that he’d not been read his rights even though he was not free to go and the detectives were there to question him about the Walmart incident–to which Goldstein admitted in some detail.
Nunnally, cross-examining Santos, sought to establish that Goldstein hadn’t committed his act in a “secluded” area, that there were a lot of people around, and that he did not physically harm the child. “The touching that you’re talking about, that lasted what, a few seconds? two, three, four or five seconds?” Nunnally asked the detective.
“Correct,” Santos said.
“Okay, and happened in front of other people around that area, correct?”
“At that point, it was just the family and him,” Santos said. (The child was there with her younger sister and her mother.)
But when Nunnally tried to question Santos about the detectives’ interview at the jail without the Miranda warning, going as far as invoking the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination, the prosecutor objected, and the judge reminded Nunnally that this was not a hearing on a motion to suppress those statements: that was not in question today.
Nunnally apologized and moved on.
There was little else to explore, since Nunnally had had neither the chance to speak to her client nor to have witnesses of her own. Further arguments will be held on Jan. 17 at 8:30 a.m., when the judge isn expected to make a decision. But between now and then, Goldstein could post bond, if he finds the means to secure $850.
Concerned Citizen says
If this pedo bails out and harms someone after, Then our justice system is entirely responsible for allowing it to happen.