Peterson was the deputy on duty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when 17 people were killed
A former Florida deputy charged with 11 criminal counts after failing to confront the gunman in the Parkland school massacre was released from jail Thursday after a judge reduced his bail and lifted some restrictions.
Scot Peterson walked out of the Broward County Jail with his attorneys after Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set bond at $39,500, down from the initial amount of $102,000. Peterson said nothing before getting into a car that drove him away.
Scherer also eliminated a previous requirement that Peterson wear a GPS monitor. His bond is secured by $330,000 in real estate and he will be allowed to go to his home in North Carolina.
„He’s going to be on standard pretrial release,“ the judge said.
Peterson, 56, is charged with child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury stemming from the February 2018 shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. If convicted, he faces a potential maximum prison sentence of nearly 100 years.
As CBS News reported, Peterson was arrested late Tuesday afternoon after a 15 month investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which said Peterson was „derelict in his duty“ and „failed to act consistently with his training and fled to a position of personal safety while [Nikolas] Cruz shot and killed students and staff.
