Judge revokes $5M bond for accused arsonist
A Columbia man is once more in jail after a judge revoked the $5 million in cash he put up a year ago.
Mehrdad Fotoohighiam will stay in the Boone County Jail, now without the chance to post bond, after Judge Jeff Harris’ Monday ruling. Columbia police believe Fotoohighiam, owner of Electenergy Technologies, Inc., paid an employee $500 to burn down a woman’s trailer at the corner of Rock Quarry Road and Grindstone Parkway in late 2014. He was arrested in June 2015 at his home on Carrick Court. Fotoohighiam paid $5 million through a cashier’s check for his release two months after that.
Police arrested him again this year for an alleged violation of a protection order his wife filed. A family court case is pending between the two, and the protection order states he is not allowed to talk with her, even through a third party. A probable cause statement claims an “employee” of Fotoohighiam’s texted his wife on his behalf, trying to get Fotoohighiam’s medicine from the house.
Harris allowed Fotoohighiam’s lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, the chance to file for a bond reduction hearing at a later time. Rosenblum told ABC 17 News after the hearing he planned to do so when he received further information prosecutors used.
Prosecutor Merilee Crockett said the pending divorce case turned up an inventory list held by Ed Orr, the court-appointed special server of the property. On the list was “multiple passports” and a birth certificate under the name “Mike Miguel.” Crockett said Fotoohighiam could be a flight risk, considering he has dual citizenship in Iran.
Rosenblum said many of the passports listed on that inventory were “more than 30 years old,” and are no longer valid. Fotoohighiam has attended nearly every one of his court appearances in the 14 months since his release, and Rosenblum said he looked forward for the arson case to go to trial. That trial is currently scheduled for December.
James Hall, the person accused of lighting the fire, has a trial scheduled for Nov. 9.
Rosenblum also argued that the person listed in the protection order case is a friend of Fotoohighiam’s and that arrangements to get medicine were specifically listed as allowable.
It’s not clear where the $5 million will go. Revoked bond usually returns to the person who posted it. An order from Judge Sue Crane in the divorce case, however, will dictate where the money will go when released by the county. Orr declined to comment on the specifics of the matter after the hearing.
