By MAIRE O’NEILLA 24-year-old Washington state resident, Tyson Collins, walked away from Los Alamos Magistrate Court Friday morning after waiving his preliminary hearing and being bound over to First Judicial District Court.
Despite appeals from Deputy District Attorney Kent Wahlquist during an Oct. 16 dangerousness hearing, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommers agreed to release Collins Friday on conditions of pre-trial probation that include requiring him to prove that he has no Internet connection at his Centralia, Wash. apartment and that he only leave that apartment for drug testing.
Judge Marlowe Sommer had originally ordered electronic monitoring for Collins but she removed that requirement after Collins’s attorney maintained he could not afford to pay for the service.
Collins was charged Oct. 10 with child solicitation by electronic communication device, sexual exploitation of children and criminal communication with a child. He was taken into custody July 26 by the Centralia Police Department in Lewis County, Wash., and was finally extradited earlier this month to Los Alamos.
The charges are related to his alleged contact with a 15-year-old Los Alamos girl. Collins allegedly contacted the victim after she posted on an app called “Whisper” asking for log-in information for Netflix.
As Wahlquist left the Magistrate Court Friday, he expressed dismay that Collins had just walked out of the Los Alamos Justice Center and that it was unknown how he was going to get back to Washington state.
No date has been set for Collins to be arraigned in District Court.
