Cash bond for Kris Zocco increased to $250,000
MILWAUKEE (WITI) — 38-year-old Kris Zocco, the man who may have been one of the last to see 27-year-old Kelly Dwyer before her disappearance, had his cash bond increased to $250,000 Wednesday, October 30th. This, after Zocco's bail was increased on Tuesday to $75,000.
Dwyer has been missing for nearly 20 days.
38-year-old Zocco has not been named a suspect in Dwyer’s disappearance. However, since she went missing, police have arrested Zocco twice on unrelated charges.
Zocco’s most recent arrest occurred last week at his parent’s home in Richfield. In this case, Zocco has been charged with 17 counts of child pornography. Police allegedly uncovered approximately 23 videos in Zocco’s apartment — some containing children as young as 2 to 3 years old.
"Found on an external hard drive. These are child pornography videos - some of which are quite lengthy," Zocco's attorney, Michael Levine said.
On Monday night, October 28th, Zocco posted a $25,000 bail in the child pornography case. However, Zocco wasn’t released at that time, as he awaited a GPS monitoring device to be installed.
The District Attorney’s Office says no GPS devices were available via the Justice Point electronic monitoring program — so Zocco’s attorneys argued Tuesday for a change to the original bail conditions.
Zocco’s bail was increased on Tuesday – to $75,000 — and the GPS requirement was lifted.
"My client was able to post $25,000 cash. That`s with the expectation that he`d be turned over for GPS monitoring. That did not happen," Zocco's attorney, Michael Levine said.
Zocco was forced to surrender his passport as a condition of bail. Zocco remains in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail.
Even with Tuesday's bail increase, prosecutors said Zocco's bail was too low.
"It`s the state`s firm belief that he does have, actually, quite extensive ability to pay," Judge Timothy Dugan said.
Prosecutors pointed to Zocco's $100,000 salary, $2,000 a month rent, a lack of GPS monitoring and wealthy parents as a cause for concern.
"It`s come to my attention that his father has a residence in Florida and is contemplating buying an island in Florida," Dugan said.
Zocco was initially taken into custody on drug charges on October 17th. The charges came to light during the investigation into Dwyer’s whereabouts when officials allegedly found drugs and drug paraphernalia at Zocco’s home.
Zocco was officially charged with five different drug related counts including keeping a drug house, intent to deliver a controlled substance, and possession of cocaine.
In the drug case, Zocco posted bail and was released. Zocco told the judge he would be staying at his East Side apartment, but ended up staying at his parents' home in Richfield. This was not reported to the court -- another reason the judge gave for the bail increase on Wednesday.
As for Dwyer, she and Zocco reportedly spent time together on Thursday, October 10th. According to Dwyer's mother, Zocco told her he last saw Dwyer around 9:00 a.m. on Friday, October 11th as she was leaving his East Side apartment.
In court on Monday, a Milwaukee Police detective investigating Dwyer’s disappearance spoke about her interview with Zocco regarding the time he last saw Dwyer.
“He said she partied with him. Those are the words he used. That consisted of doing lines of cocaine. He said they may have smoked a bong, which meant marijuana — in a pipe used to smoke marijuana and that they were going to have drinks,” the detective said.
MPD officials again on Wednesday searched a Menomonee Falls landfill for evidence related to Dwyer's disappearance. Nothing has yet been found.
The search will not be resumed on Thursday due to the potential for bad weather.