The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifies:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

And thus we come to the case of George Aldridge:

Man charged in 3 Lexington sexual assaults has been tied to another case, police say

By Christopher Leach | Monday, August 28, 2023 | 9:17 AM EDT | Updated: 10:01 AM EDT

George Aldridge, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

A Kentucky man previously charged in three Lexington sexual assault cases is now facing charges in another sexual assault due to a breakthrough discovery by a Kentucky State Police investigative team, officials announced Monday.

George Aldridge, 53, was indicted last month on a charge of first-degree rape in Jefferson County, according to court records. KSP said the incident happened in 2005 and investigators solved it nearly two decades later thanks to DNA evidence.

The new indictment adds to several other offenses Aldridge has been accused of: he was indicted on two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of first-degree sodomy, three counts of kidnapping and one count of first-degree wanton endangerment in April, according to court records.

Those charges stem from three abductions and sexual assaults between 2009 and 2016 in Fayette County, Lexington police previously said.

No, of course, following the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, the Lexington Herald-Leader did not include the suspect’s mugshot; I had to get it from the Fayette County Detention Center records.

But this 5’9″ tall, 285 pound man is clearly a danger to any woman he encounters, and he does have a bail amount set. Shouldn’t the women in Fayette County knows what this fine gentleman looks like, so they can be on alert should they happen to see him?

Aldridge is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond for his Fayette County cases, according to jail records. Prosecutors in Lexington previously asked to hike Aldridge’s bond after it was initially set at $150,000, but District Judge Bruce Bell ultimately denied the request.

His bond was lowered to $50,000 by Circuit Judge Julie Goodman after he was indicted. She ordered that he be on house arrest and could not have contact with the alleged victims if he posted his bond.

Aldridge’s bond in his Jefferson County case is $25,000, according to court records.

Thus far, he hasn’t made bail, and if he does, he’ll have a very fashionable ankle bracelet.

Under KRS §510.040, rape in the first degree is a Class B felony, which under KRS §532.060(2)(b) the sentence is not less than ten (10) years nor more than twenty 20 years imprisonment. If Mr Aldridge is guilty of these crimes, he has to know by now that he could be locked up for a very long time, so he actually has the perverse incentive of any rapist to go out and rape someone else if he does make bail, a last hurrah as it were. I do not know why Judge Goodman reduced his bail, when prosecutors claimed that he is a flight risk:

He appeared in court Wednesday after prosecutors asked that his bond be increased because they have evidence that he’s a flight risk. Prosecutors based their concern on a remark that Aldridge made to family during a phone call from jail.

“If I get out of here, I am leaving and not coming back,” Aldridge is alleged to have told his family while on a phone call from jail, prosecutors said in court documents.

That story was published on February 22, 2023, 19 days after he was booked into the Detention Center. If 19 days in jail had him saying that, how does he feel about it now that he’s been locked up for 206 days?

However, even after his bail reduction, he is still behind bars, so perhaps Judge Goodman thought that $150,000 was an unreasonable bail amount for him, given that even the $50,000 has not been made.

But, whatever the Judge’s reasoning, Mr Aldridge (allegedly) is both a menace to women, and a flight risk, if he is released. Whatever happens, if he goes to trial and is convicted on all counts, he needs to be sentenced in such a manner that he never, ever gets out of prison alive. And if prosecutors have the evidence down cold, there should never be any sort of plea bargain which lets him out before his 100^th birthday.