Bail hearing postponed again for MIT senior arrested in January
A hearing to determine whether Angel De La Cruz would receive bail was postponed until May 1.
The initial hearing was scheduled for this past Monday, April 25. However, according to trial attendee and friend Alexander List '15, the court instead read De La Cruz’s charges this past Monday, and postponed his bail hearing. The postponement was at the request of the District Attorney, List said.
Angel De La Cruz, a senior in Course 6 and a resident of Senior House, was arrested earlier this year when police searched his dorm room after an MIT counselor filed a report and found “pistol, a rifle, and ammunition that he was not licensed to possess.”
At a his initial hearing Jan. 13, De La Cruz was denied bail after being ruled “dangerous.”
De La Cruz had no prior arrest record, and a press release from the prosecuting attorney’s office in Middlesex County indicates that there was no evidence that De La Cruz made threats towards any members of the MIT community.
“Statistics show that ethnic disparities exist in criminal justice. One of the things that worries me is that racial currents may affect Angel’s prosecution,” Alexander List said.
“If the judge considers him dangerous or a flight risk he has to sit in jail… before he’s even convicted of anything,” List said.
“We had 27 people who came on Monday,” List said. “The judge addressed us at one point to explain the process and that Angel’s bail hearing would be postponed.” The crowd at the Monday hearing included Senior House residents, Senior House alums, and De La Cruz’s mother.
List, who has known De La Cruz since he first came to live in Senior House, said De La Cruz “personally has been very generous to me” and that “he was teaching me and other residents how to ride motorcycles.”
List urged members of the MIT community to attend De La Cruz’s hearing at 9 a.m. on May 1.
“Members of the MIT community who’d like to accompany us in carpools to Angel’s trial would be warmly welcomed,” List said. “They should feel free to contact angel-community@mit.edu and we’ll help them arrange transportation, as well as connect them to S^3 to potentially receive an excused absence.”
“Having people’s support in the courtroom actually does make a difference,” List said. “To the extent that there is flexibility in sentencing, the presence of community members could literally impact years of Angel’s life.”
This article has been updated to reflect that Alexander List is an MIT 2015, who took time off to found a startup and is now graduating in 2017. List was described in an earlier version of this article as a '17.