ALLEGAN, Mich. (WOOD) — Michigan State Police are “actively searching” for a sex offender who failed to show up for a bond hearing Monday, according to Allegan County Prosecutor Myrene Koch.
Daniel Albert Loew was scheduled to appear Monday afternoon in Allegan County District Court, but Koch said the convicted sex offender cut off his tether and did not appear in court.
“This defendant should not have been on bond,” Koch wrote in an email to Target 8 Monday afternoon. “Our office argued multiple times at multiple hearings that this defendant was a flight risk and a danger to the community. Judge (William) Baillargeon nonetheless allowed the defendant to remain on bond.”
Target 8 contacted Baillargeon’s office for comment but did not hear back immediately.
Last week on Sept. 11, the Michigan Supreme Court denied Loew’s motion to reconsider its prior decision not to afford him a new trial. That denial reaffirmed Loew’s conviction on multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct, according to Koch, setting the stage for his return to prison to serve out his 20- to 40-year sentence.
“On 9/11/24, we filed a motion to revoke his bond which was scheduled for a hearing 9/13/2024,” Koch explained. “Judge William Baillargeon adjourned that hearing on 9/13/2024 ex parte after receiving a motion filed by the defense attorney. The Prosecutor’s Office filed an objection immediately.”
When Loew failed to appear for Monday’s hearing, Koch said Baillargeon issued a bench warrant for Loew’s arrest with a $1 million cash/surety bond.
“The Michigan State Police are actively searching for Daniel Loew and any possible accomplices,” wrote Koch Monday afternoon. “They will all be brought to justice.”
Loew’s 2019 conviction and the back-and-forth appeals that followed served as backdrop for heated words leading up to the August prosecutorial primary election, in which voters ousted veteran prosecutor Koch in favor of Michael Villar.
An Allegan County jury found Loew guilty in August 2019 on two counts of first-degree crimnal sexual conduct, a count of second-degree CSC and two counts of third-degree CSC. Kock said Loew, convicted as a habitual offender, had sexually assaulted a girl repeatedly, beginning when she was 13 and he was 21.
Judge Baillargeon granted Loew a new trial after it was discovered that Circuit Court Judge Margaret Zuzich Bakker, while presiding over Loew’s trial, sent three brief, private emails to Koch questioning the quality of the investigation by Michigan State Police.
In January 2022, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed Baillargeon’s order for a new trial, prompting Loew’s attorneys to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.
In July, the state supreme court again rejected a new trial for Loew, though it did call the private emails between Zuzich Bakker and Koch “unethical,” and in the trial judge’s case, a violation of the Michigan Code of Judicial Conduct. Though the Supreme Court deemed the email exchange inappropriate, it determined it did not impact the outcome of Loew’s trial, which is the bar that must be met to retry a case.
After the Supreme Court’s first ruling, Baillargeon declared during a hearing that the actions of Zuzich Bakker and Koch had brought “dishonor and shame” to the Allegan County Courts.
