Judge to rule on bail for Northampton man extradited from Ecuador on child exploitation charges
The judge is weighing competing arguments over whether a Northampton man accused of possessing child sexual abuse material poses a flight risk after fleeing to South America.
NORTHAMPTON — A Hampshire Superior Court judge is considering bail for a 55-year-old Northampton man who spent six years in Ecuador after being charged with possessing child sexual abuse material. Judge Charles Groce III took the bail arguments under advisement Monday and said he expects to issue a decision within a week.
Jude Demeis was charged in 2019 with three counts of possessing child sexual abuse material and one count of posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity following a Hampshire County grand jury decision in September 2019. Northampton Police began investigating Demeis after he allegedly shared a video containing child sexual abuse material on social media. An arrest warrant was issued in 2020, but Demeis left the jurisdiction before authorities could arrest him. The FBI located him in Ecuador earlier this year and extradited him to Massachusetts with assistance from Ecuadorian authorities.
Demeis pleaded not guilty on August 21 after U.S. marshals escorted him from Ecuador to Boston. At Monday's bail hearing, Assistant District Attorney Kyle Stublen argued that Demeis posed a significant flight risk and urged the judge to either hold him without bail or set it at $1 million. Stublen pointed out that Demeis sold his house for less than he paid for it in June 2019, just two months after a search warrant was executed at his home, and then left not just Massachusetts but the entire country.
"After the defendant's search warrant was executed at his house for child sexual abuse material in April of 2019, within two months of that date, the defendant had sold his house for below what he purchased it for and then left the jurisdiction of not only the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but the United States of America," Stublen said. Stublen also argued that Demeis now has fewer ties to Northampton than he did in 2019, making him more likely to flee again if released.
Demeis's attorney Brad Bailey countered that his client is a Massachusetts native and UMass Amherst graduate with family ties to the state. Bailey directed Demeis's parents, both Massachusetts residents, to stand before the court. He noted that Demeis had not been arrested or charged on the day his home was searched in April 2019 and was not made aware of the warrant against him until November 2019, when Massachusetts State Police visited his parents' home in Needham.
"He was somebody who traveled. He did go to Ecuador at a time when there were no flight restrictions, nothing placed on him whatsoever," Bailey said. Bailey argued that his client's charges, while serious, were non-violent in nature and requested that Demeis be released on $250,000 bail with home confinement and GPS monitoring.
In 2020, Massachusetts State Police added Demeis to its Most Wanted list. His photo was featured in 2021 on the Investigation Discovery program "In Pursuit with John Walsh," which tracks fugitives and missing children. The parties scheduled a pre-trial conference for October 28.