The “Free Them All” fund has struck again — this time springing the man accused of breaking into Gov. Charlie Baker’s home after Baker tried to make it tougher for dangerous criminals to get bailed.
The apparent act of political payback by the notorious left-wing Massachusetts Bail Fund comes amid growing scrutiny of the group, funded by anonymous donors.
The Bail Fund posted the $5,000 bail for Lane Forman last weekend, according to the Salem News. Forman was charged with breaking and entering last month after he got into the Swampscott home of Baker while the Republican governor’s wife and daughter were home.
Court records indicate that he walked right through an unlocked door and left a folder of documents and photos for Baker. According to court documents, a state trooper spotted Forman and the man shouted “Don’t F– with me, Charlie told me to drop this off.”
Forman is no mere trespasser. He has what a judge called an “extensive” record including violent offenses. A judge ordered that Forman stay away from the governor’s house, get a mental and physical examination in jail, and wear a bracelet. Forman said the whole incident was a “misunderstanding.”
Right.
It’s scary enough to think that someone could just waltz into the home of the governor, but apparently that did not deter the Bail Fund.
The Bail Fund’s action freeing Forman is not a minor thing — it puts the Baker family back into fear after the disturbing first incident. It comes amid escalating concerns about the safety of public officials like governors in today’s charged political atmosphere.
The shady nonprofit based in Cambridge (where else) literally has the slogan “free them all” but refuses to disclose its donors or beneficiaries or be held publicly accountable.
The group has posted up to $30,000 bail to free a number of dangerous criminals including a twice-convicted rapist who after he was freed was charged with another sex crime, and a Melrose level 3 sex offender.
Even liberal Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins has criticized the group for springing dangerous offenders, but Bail Fund remains defiant.
“The Massachusetts Bail Fund is committed to the harm reduction of freeing individuals serving pre-trial sentences, and to abolishing pre-trial detention and supervision in the long term,” the group says on its website.
Baker in September filed a bill making it easier for prosecutors to hold accused violent criminals in jail — a proposal strongly opposed by bail reform advocates.
The bill would expand the types of crimes deemed “dangerous” — giving prosecutors more leeway to hold these dangerous accused criminals in jail.
It was viewed as a direct slap at the Bail Fund and now the fund has struck back at Baker.
A spokeswoman for the governor’s office did not return a call from the Herald seeking comment on Forman’s release, and Baker has been reluctant to comment on the threat to his family. But he should now.
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