CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A district court judge has set cash bonds for a man who police say terrorized his former girlfriend and cut off his electronic monitor before they arrested him again on Wednesday.
Robert Barringer made his first appearance on a string of new charges Thursday afternoon. Police detectives were there to make sure Judge Kim Best-Staton knew they consider him a threat to his former girlfriend and the community.
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"What we've seen with Mr. Barringer is an increasing level of violence," said Sgt. Craig Varnum, who was one of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's domestic violence team members who attended Barringer's court appearance.
It is not something police do often, but Barringer had been arrested three times in one week for allegedly attacking his former girlfriend and shooting into her mother’s home, and they wanted the judge to know that.
“Our presence here today was to let the judge know that this person is particularly violent, he is dangerous, and to let her know how seriously we take that threat,” Varnum said.
Barringer’s bonds totaled $425,000. Best-Staton did not raise them, but ordered that they would be cash bonds, making it more difficult for a bonding agency to get Barringer out of jail.
The woman Barringer is accused of attacking was back at home Thursday after spending a night in a shelter.
“I was able to sleep and rest calmly and not worry you know,” she told Eyewitness News.“I've been looking over my back the whole time. Worrying about where he was at.”
Barringer, who talked back to a camera as he walked into the Police Department on Wednesday did not say anything during his court appearance, which lasted about 10 minutes.
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