Three men arrested earlier this month during a human trafficking sting by Thumb Area sheriff’s offices and the Genesee County GHOST team have been released after their bail was reduced from half a million dollars each to now only a $10,000 bond, 10 percent, meaning the men only needed $1,000 to get out of jail.
The men’s bonds were reduced during a bond hearing before Judge David Herrington last Friday, July 22, just 10 days after they were arrested. The three men, Daniel Horetski, Kevin Manor and Jeremy Susalla, are all accused of allegedly seeking sex with underage children, having been caught during the July 12 operation as ran by Sanilac, Tuscola and Huron County Sheriffs and their deputies, with Genesse County Chris Swanson showing the officers the ropes for conducting their own human trafficking operations later on.
One of the men, Horetski, is a retired police officer from Arizona. All three were charged on child sexually abusive activity, accosting a minor for immoral purposes and using a computer to commit a crime, with two of those charges carrying 20 years in prison each if convicted.
For the $500,000 bond to have been so dramatically reduced, attorney Nick Robinson says “that suggests there is something up with these cases.” Robinson has past experience with these types of cases, defending 30 of more than 150 people arrested due to GHOST investigations, and suggested several reasons why the men may have been let out on reduced bond: “[They’ve] never been in trouble before; they are not a danger to the community; they are not a flight risk.”
Huron County Prosecutor Tim Rutkowski had no comment on the new bond amounts.
