Bail is Reduced for Burum, Biane and Alleged Accomplices During Court Hearing

A San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge on Thursday lowered bail for four once influential men indicted by the Attorney General’s office in a county corruption case.

But conditions were set. The judge has ordered the men wear electronic monitoring devices.

Attorneys for Developer Jeffrey Burum, a general partner of Colonies Partners, L.P., former San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane, Mark Kirk, former chief of staff to Supervisor Gary Ovitt and current director of government relations in the county administrative office, and James Erwin, former chief of staff to Neil Derry, asked Judge Brian S. McCarville during an arraignment for lower bail amounts.

The men were arrested in connection with a $102 million bribery scheme. All were indicted Tuesday by the San Bernardino County Grand Jury on 29 counts of conspiracy to commit bribery, misappropriation of public funds, improper influence and conflict of interest, according to a news release issued by the California Attorney General’s office.

Judge McCarville granted the request, lowering Biane and Erwin’s bail to $250,000 from $2 million, Kirk’s bail to $100,000 from $2 million and Burum’s bail to $500,000 from $10 million.

Deputy Attorney General Melissa Mandel with the California State Attorney General’s office argued all four were flight risks.

Burum, she said, owned a private aircraft. Biane had shown disregard for the process by leaving town without informing investigators of his whereabouts and then failing to turn himself in at the agreed upon time. He was arrested Tuesday at Ontario/Airport after returning from out of state.

All of them were also a danger to society based on the nature of their crimes, Mandel said.

Burum's attorney Daniel Greenberg, with Greenberg and Greenberg, said there was nothing to  suggest the men were a flight risk. The probe into the corruptions has been ongoing for years, he said.

“To say now, five years later, six years after the alleged offense that these people in general are all dangers to the community, it’s easy to say that but what evidence that they are a danger do you have?” he asked.

The men were to be fitted with the ankle bracelets within a few days, Greenberg told the judge. Attorneys for all the men tracked down a private company to provide the monitors and track the men after it was learned that San Bernardino County Sheriff’s officials do not issue the monitors pre-conviction.

Arrangements still need to be made for the monitors. The judge will allow the men to travel outside of San Bernardino County but only to Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura and Kern counties.

The next court hearing has been scheduled June 10.