InsiderAdvantage contacted several Georgia prosecutors– who for obvious reasons choose not be identified— who are appalled that Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard and his prosecutors didn’t oppose bond for accused I-85 bridge burner Basil Eleby. Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville ultimately approved a bond agreement that prosecutors cut with Eleby’s lawyers that puts this career criminal back onto the street.
Approved is a $10,000 signature bond, which means Eleby doesn’t have to put up money. He is also supposed to enter a residential center to address his addictions and mental health, look around for a job within the next two months and submit to random drug testing. He also cannot have contact with any witnesses and cannot go within 1,000 yards of where the interstate collapsed, except for visits with his attorneys or their investigators.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution posted a story outlining “seven things you want to know about Basil Eleby.” Bottom line: He had been arrested at least 19 times. There were charges of battery and assault, trafficking and possessing cocaine, but he never spent more than a few months in jail.”
Eleby is currently charged with arson and criminal trespass. But he has multiple previous mugshots, according to Mugshots.com. ABC News reported that Eleby and two other suspects in the bridge fire were interrogated for a whole day on their location and what they did. Business owners in the area of the fire and bridge collapse also testify that when he wandered into their establishments he displayed “flashes of anger.”
