A state trooper facing murder charges in the December 2020 death of 11-year-old Monica Goods will be home for the holidays after a judge granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered him freed on $100,000 cash bail.

The decision Friday by state Supreme Court Judge Denise Hartman was a stinging rebuke to Ulster County Court Judge Bryan Rounds who, at a Nov. 4 bail hearing, ordered 43-year-old Christopher Baldner be held in jail without bail pending trial. In her ruling, Hartman found that Rounds’ decision to deny Baldner bail was “an abuse of discretion.”

Baldner is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter and three counts of first-degree reckless endangerment related to the Dec. 22 crash on the Thruway that killed Goods, an 11-year-old Brooklyn resident traveling with her family to a holiday visit with relatives in Syracuse. Prosecutors allege the 19-year state police veteran twice intentionally rammed a Dodge minivan driven by Goods father after he fled a traffic stop near the Exit 19 interchange in the Town of Ulster. The impact of the second collision caused the van to spin out and overturn. Monica, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

Baldner faces three more charges of first-degree reckless endangerment in connection with a September 2019 incident in which he also allegedly used his police vehicle to ram a fleeing driver off the road. He faces a maximum sentence of 27 and a half years to life in state prison if convicted on all counts in the case.

Baldner, a Catskill resident, has been held in Ulster County Jail since Oct. 27, when he turned himself in following an indictment by an Ulster County grand jury. At the Nov. 4 bail hearing, Judge Rounds rejected arguments by defense attorney John Ingrassia that his client’s deep ties to the community, unblemished criminal record and willingness to turn himself in meant that he did not pose a flight risk and should be granted bail in the case.

On Friday, on the third floor of the Albany County Courthouse, Ingrassia and co-counsel Stephan Coffey made that case again in a habeas corpus hearing in which they argued that Rounds had misapplied provisions in the Bail Elimination Act of 2019 in ordering their client remanded without bail. Coffey argued that Rounds had not conducted an adequate “individualized determination” of Baldner’s flight risk, and instead based his decision to remand the trooper wholly on the fact that he was charged with a serious crime and faced a lengthy prison sentence if convicted at trial. State appellate courts had long held, Coffey argued, that the simple fact of a defendant’s indictment on a murder charge was not sufficient reason to deny bail.

Coffey added that Rounds’ decision to reject Baldner’s offer of $100,000 cash bail — a figure Coffey said represented virtually all of the family’s savings — ignored the bail reform law’s edict that judge’s impose the “least restrictive” means to ensure a defendant’s presence at trial.

“If remand without bail is the least restrictive means, then what’s the most restrictive?” Coffey told the court. “Are we talking about the death penalty?”

State Assistant Attorney General Paul Clyne, who along with co-counsel Jennifer Gashi is serving as prosecutor in the case, argued that the defense arguments fell outside the scope of the court’s power to review the case for errors of law. Clyne, a former Albany County district attorney, also rejected claims that Rounds had not provided adequate rationale for his decision to remand Baldner.

“We were there for two hours,” said Clyne of the Nov. 4 bail hearing. “It was a very thorough and searching inquiry.”

‘Lacks rationality’

In remarks from the bench, Hartman said that Rounds’ decision had failed to take into account Baldner’s ties to the community where he’s owned a home and lived with his wife and children for 15 years. Hartman added that the decision also failed to recognize the financial incentive to appear at trial represented by Baldner’s willingness to put up $100,000 cash bail.

“It appears to me that he gave little, if any weight to this factor,” said Hartman who declared that Rounds’ decision in the case “lacks rationality and constitutes an abuse of discretion.”

Hartman ordered that Baldner be released on $100,000 cash bail, $300,000 secured bond or a $450,000 partially secured bond. The judge also ordered that Baldner be subject to home confinement and electronic monitoring, turn over any passports and firearms and submit to supervision by local probation authorities. Ingrassia said Baldner’s wife, working with a bail bondsman, was prepared to pay the necessary bond immediately.

While the Nov. 4 hearing in Kingston took place in a crowded courtroom with TV camera crews and other members of the media present — and a crowd of “Justice for Monica” protestors outside the courthouse — Friday’s hearing in Albany took place before a smaller audience consisting of members of Baldner’s family and members of the New York State Troopers PBA which has expressed support for the trooper and raised money for his defense. NYSTPBA Treasurer Charles DiSanto said that the union and the defense team had intentionally sought a more discreet hearing.

“This was not something we had wished to bring out in public, to put before the media,” said DiSanto. “But today the Judge has gotten the decision right.”