Saunders advocates for Tarra’s Law

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:43:43 -0500

State Representative Tom Saunders sponsored Tarra’s Law this session. The bill would give courts authority to raise bail in sexually violent predator cases.

It was passed unanimously Wednesday by the Indiana Senate. The bill was authored after the unfortunate case of Tarra Pickett from Cambridge City. The Richmond Palladium-Item reports.

State Rep. Tom Saunders, R-Lewisville, was a co-sponsor of the bill in the Indiana House.

Leonard Dickey, a convicted rapist who was out of jail on bail on child molestation charges, is accused of strangling Pickett last May in a wooded area of Cambridge City.

Bail for Dickey in the child molestation case was set in January 2007 at $50,000, so only $5,000 was needed to free him. Dickey served 22 years on rape and confinement convictions in Fayette County. He was released in 2005.

The bill would require an open court hearing to be held within 48 hours after a sexually violent predator is arrested and before bail is set. The court would have the option to consider whether the case warrants setting bail higher than county guidelines.

District 54

Saunders advocates for Tarra’s Law