Judge Stefany Miley listens to attorneys during a hearing at the Regional Justice Center Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. Recently, Miley ordered Henry Altamirano’s bail to be reduced from $1 million to $50,000.
Monday, Feb. 13, 2017 | 7:30 p.m.
Henry Altamirano
The bail of a man suspected of sexually assaulting his ex-fiancee's 9-year-old daughter has been substantially raised, almost two weeks after it'd been slashed from $1 million to $50,000, according to county records.
Clark County Detention Center logs show that Henry Altamirano's bail has been raised to $300,000.
It wasn't immediately clear what led to Judge Stefany Miley's decision, but court records show that Sheriff Joe Lombardo on Friday petitioned the court to vacate the house arrest condition Henry Altamirano had qualified for two weeks ago. Lombardo's motion was addressed Monday.
Altamirano, 45, would've been able to wait for his June trial while on house arrest if he'd pay the $50,000 bail, a significant reduction from the $250,000 the court had originally set and the $1 million it had ballooned to after he allegedly broke a no-contact order, records show. Clark County prosecutors had objected to the reduction.
Records show that Altamirano had apparently posted bail a week ago, but he'd remained jailed for unclear reasons.
The victim's mother, Crystal Padua, was unnerved that Altamirano would be able to "pay pennies" to get out, and her family was afraid of the possibility of Altamirano being able to break free of an ankle monitor and harm the victim, she had told the Las Vegas Sun, which broke the story last week.
Altamirano has been in custody since Jan. 17, 2016, when Padua, his ex-fiancee of three years, reported him to Metro Police.
Her daughter, who was 9 at the time, told her Altamirano had been inappropriately touching her, according to an arrest report. Investigators believe the multiple incidents had been occurring for several weeks, which coincided with what Padua described as the girl's changing behavior.
In an interview with detectives before they informed him of the girl's allegations, Altamirano admitted to the acts, police said. He is facing two counts of sexual assault with a minor under 14 years old and seven counts of lewdness with a child.
Altamirano has since pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial, which is set to begin on June 5, records show.
He and Padua share a child and she said she was afraid he would try to take him if he was able to get out of jail, even if he was on house arrest.
Prosecutors had objected to Miley's bail reduction citing possible flight risk due to the serious nature of the charges and the probability of conviction.
Miley had deemed Altamirano to be a low-risk re-offender based on a Nevada pretrial risk assessment evaluation she cited in her decision to reduce the original bail.
The nine-item questionnaire takes into consideration things such as the suspect's previous criminal and mental history, according to the document.
Just because the allegations and charges are severe, it doesn't automatically make a person violent or a flight risk, Altamirano's attorney, Jonathan MacArthur, told the Las Vegas Sun last week. He noted that his client had no history of violence nor criminal history.
