Man accused of raping 2d child while free on bail

Without a dangerousness hearing, Gardner was able to go free when two separate judges set his bail at $10,000 cash. Gardner's mother paid the money on Oct. 8, court records show. On Friday night, Gardner is accused of raping a 3-year-old child in his home and then telling her he would kill her father if she told anyone.

When Gardner pleaded not guilty at his arraignment today in Plymouth District Court for the second rape, a defense attorney said that she had "some evidence of a highly exculpatory nature" that she planned to present in court. This time Gardner was ordered held without bail until a dangerousness hearing on Wednesday. His defense attorney's name was not immediately available.

Gardner's release after the alleged rape in August sparked condemnation today from the mother of his first victim and Kingston Police Chief Joseph Rebello, both of whom came to his arraignment.

"Obviously with the second victim, I feel like that could have been prevented if we took a stronger stance" against people accused of sexually assaulting children, Rebello said. "It's very disturbing."

Kingston police investigators did everything they could so a judge would be able to keep Gardner behind bars, Rebello said.

"I wonder why we let people out who are charged with such crimes," Rebello said, adding, "letting him loose on society only means we are going to have further victims."

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said Gardner faced "heinous allegations" after his first rape arrest and that prosecutors were disappointed that Plymouth District Court Judge Thomas F. Brownell set bail at $10,000 instead of the $200,000 they originally sought.

"Obviously, we thought it should have been two hundred grand," Cruz said today in a telephone interview. "Unfortunately, many times we're not satisfied with the bail that's set, but that's what we have to deal with."

Cruz's office did not request that the court hold a dangerousness hearing after the initial charges because prosecutors concluded that because Brownell set bail at far lower than they requested, it was unlikely that the judge would find Gardner posed an imminent danger. Before August, Gardner had not been convicted or accused of any crime of a sexual nature, public records show.

After Gardner's indictment, the first alleged rape case was transferred to Superior Court, where prosecutors again requested high bail -- $150,000. But Judge Joseph M. Walker III kept bail at $10,000, and Gardner went free a few weeks later.

The mother of the first victim said today that investigators gathered fingerprints and other forensic evidence that tied Gardner to the crime that occurred at a home in Kingston. Gardner allegedly broke into the home through a bathroom window, according to the mother, whose name the Globe is withholding because it would indirectly identify her daughter, the victim of a sexual assault.

Gardner was identified as the attacker by both the 5-year-old victim and a 10-year-old cousin who was also in the room at the time, the mother said. Police arrested Gardner on Aug. 22, within 48 hours of the alleged crime. He was indicted on Sept. 25, pleaded not guilty, and posted $10,000 cash bail on Oct. 8, records show.

The events leading up to the second alleged rape began when Gardner began dating a woman with whom he had gone to high school, prosecutors said. The woman brought her two children -- a girl, 3, and boy, 8 -- to spend the night at Gardner's home on Friday, prosecutors said. Gardner lives on Summer Street with his 4-year-old son. The woman had slept there without her children the night before, court records show.

The woman told investigators that she heard her 3-year-old crying in the middle of the night but dismissed it because she often got upset while sleeping.

The next morning the woman noticed that her daughter was no longer wearing a pull-up diaper and she asked her about it. The girl then allegedly told her mother that Gardner violated her. The woman took her daughter to Jordan Hospital, which notified police.

When police arrested Gardner at home on Sunday morning, he said the allegations were untrue.

"She accused me of this yesterday and wanted money so I gave it to her," Gardner told police, according to court records. "She must have heard about my other case."