A local district court judge has upgraded the release conditions for an unlicensed driver who was implicated in a fatal hit-and-run accident that took place in Burlington last week.
Alamance County’s chief district court judge Katie Overby has agreed to place Irma Garcia Hernandez under a secured bond of $50,000 – in lieu of the unsecured bond of $100,000 that she received in the immediate wake of her arrest last Tuesday.
Hernandez had originally obtained the higher – albeit unsecured – sum from magistrate judge Amelia Knauff after members of Burlington’s police force took her into custody for a motor vehicle collision that claimed the life of 36-year-old Alicia Cearley in the small hours that morning.
In addition to the felony-level charge of hit-and-run resulting in death, the 51-year-old suspect, who hails from 421 Wade Avenue in Bur-lington, was also cited for exceeding a safe speed as well as driving without a valid operator’s license at the time of the accident.
Although Her-nandez reportedly left the scene of the crash, which occurred near the intersection of South Church Street and Glendale Avenue, court records indicate that she had voluntarily contacted the authorities later that morning about the collision.
In fact, a footnote to her original release conditions explicitly states that she “called in about the accident approximately an hour later saying she had hit a deer or a person.” This belated admission may have worked in her favor when Knauff agreed to release her on an unsecured bond – with the added condition that she “is not to drive until properly licensed.”
Hernandez’s release initially raised eyebrows among some court system observers. Their dismay might have partly stemmed from an error on the part of Burlington’s police department, which mistakenly reported that the defendant was freed on a written promise to appear in court when it issued a news release shortly after the accident. As is, the issuance of an unsecured bond still seems to have raised the hackles of officials within the local district attorney’s office.
Unlike a secured bond, which requires a cash payment before the defendant is released from jail, an unsecured bond merely kicks in when the accused fails to show up in court. In this case, prosecutors apparently felt that the circumstances warranted an actual surety from the defendant.
So, on Wednesday afternoon, assistant district attorney Sarah Burnick filed a formal motion to have a judge review the unsecured bond imposed on Hernandez.
In her motion, Burnick observed that Hernandez was not only driving without a license and left the scene of an accident but that she faces a Class F Felony which carries “a maximum punishment of 59 months.” These points seem to have tipped the scales with Overby, who issued an order on Thursday that substituted the original, unsecured bond of $100,000 for a secured sum of $50,000.
Court records indicate that Hernandez posted the required amount later that day.
