Idaho mom in missing kids case denied bond reduction

Lori Vallow, the Idaho mother charged in the case of her two missing children, was denied a bond reduction on Friday.

Vallow appeared in an Idaho courtroom for a hearing to reduce her $1 million bond. Vallow, who wore a mask, did not make any statements.

Magistrate Judge Michelle Mallard said she did not hear "any good cause" to reduce Vallow's bail.

Vallow is facing five counts in the case of her missing children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. The counts are two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children and one misdemeanor count each of resisting and obstructing an officer, solicitation of a crime and contempt.

JJ and Tylee have been missing since September. During an investigation by Rexburg police, they found "no evidence or verification of anyone providing for the housing, food, clothing, education or medical care" for the children since that time.

Her attorney, Mark Means, argued to reduce her bond because he said he learned that "multiple" conversations between him and Vallow, which were meant to be confidential, were recorded while he visited his client at jail. Means said he was told the calls were later deleted, but he does not know who had access to them or a chance to listen to them.

Means asked for her bond to be reduced to somewhere between $100,000 to $250,000.

Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood said that the notion that multiple calls were recorded is "absolutely false." Wood said that Means was recorded once. Wood also said Means at one point stated for the record that he knew he was being recorded during that phone call on March 31, Vallow consented to being recorded, and therefore the call was not privileged.

Wood calls Means' argument "an attempt to divert the court and the public from the facts of the case."

Vallow has maintained her innocence.

"As with any citizen of our Country, Mrs. Daybell is entitled to all the privileges and rights that accompany our cornerstone belief of innocents, until proven beyond a reasonable doubt otherwise," a March statement from her attorney Mark Means read. "It is this innocence that Mrs. Daybell assertively maintains regarding all charges."

Vallow left her home in Rexburg, Idaho, in December to go to Hawaii with her husband of just a few months, Chad Daybell. She was arrested in Hawaii in February and brought back to Idaho, where she is being held at Madison County Jail.

The bond reduction hearing had been postponed twice because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.