A 46-year-old burglary suspect is in jail on $50,000 bail, which his defense attorney said seems too high for the alleged crime.
David Joseph Kurtz pleaded innocent in Franklin County Superior Court to second-degree burglary and had his trial set for Feb. 8.
Deputy Prosecutor Brian Hultgren said Kurtz's criminal history supports the high bail. He said Kurtz has nine felony convictions, 35 misdemeanor convictions and had seven warrants issued for his arrest from 2006-09 for failing to appear in court.
"I feel he's a risk to fail to re-appear," Hultgren told Judge Craig Matheson.
Defense attorney Scott Johnson, however, asked to have his client released on his own recognizance, saying "$50,000 seems absolutely exorbitant."
He said there is "clearly a strong defense" from the information included in the prosecutor's probable cause affidavit. He said it indicates there are two witnesses who said Kurtz had permission to be in the storage shed he is accused of burglarizing.
"$50,000 on a storage shed burglary is a little bit shocking," Johnson said.
Matheson, however, agreed with prosecutors that the criminal history, which he said "is pretty serious," supports the bail amount.
According to court documents, Kurtz was arrested by Pasco police Dec. 10 after he reportedly broke into a storage shed behind a home in the 1700 block of North 24th Avenue.
A caller reported seeing a man taking items from a neighbor's storage shed and putting them in the garbage can across the street.
Officers checked the area and found a man, later identified as Kurtz, who matched the description of the suspect at an apartment complex across the street. Kurtz ran when he saw officers, documents said.
Officers found a garbage can outside an apartment and learned Kurtz lived there. They also saw a box of items with the victim's name on it in the open bed of a truck parked in front, documents said.
Kurtz eventually opened the door after officers knocked for more than 10 minutes and reportedly admitted taking the items from the shed, documents said.
But he told police he had permission from the previous owners, who told him he could take anything left behind once they had moved, documents said.
The person responsible for the house denied giving Kurtz permission to go into the shed, but the previous resident and a neighbor confirmed Kurtz's account, documents said.
