DeLeon free after judge reduces bail

Carole Ann DeLeon’s shaky Oct. 2 trial date on a charge that she murdered her adopted son was firmed up Wednesday when she posted $20,000 bail.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Al Nielson agreed Wednesday to allow the Deer Park-area defendant to post a $20,000 cash bail instead of the $50,000 surety bond he called for at DeLeon’s second-degree murder arraignment Tuesday.

Defense attorney Carl Oreskovich requested the change, which required DeLeon to put up more cash but spared her the fee a bail bond firm would have charged. Her $20,000 will be returned if she obeys court orders.

Now that DeLeon is free on bail, the court has three months to bring her to trial on the murder charge instead of two. The trial would have had to start mid-September if DeLeon hadn’t posted bail on the murder charge or agreed to a continuance.

The date was set in May, when DeLeon was charged only with second-degree criminal mistreatment of a boy who had been assigned to her for foster care. Both the murder and mistreatment charges accuse DeLeon, 51, of depriving the victims of food and fluids.

DeLeon’s 7-year-old adopted son, Tyler J. DeLeon, died of dehydration in January 2005, four months after the other alleged victim, an 8-year-old foster child, was removed from her custody.

DeLeon posted $5,000 bail in the mistreatment case and agreed to waive her speedy-trial rights on that charge through Oct. 31. She has not agreed to a continuance on the murder charge, which was added Tuesday.

Oreskovich said Wednesday he didn’t know whether he would need a later trial date in order to be properly prepared.

Another unresolved issue is whether the charges should be handled in two trials, as Oreskovich would prefer, or together, as Prosecutor Jerry Wetle wishes.