CHAMBERLAIN — A Chamberlain man in jail pending trial for domestic assault and eight other charges is now facing additional charges after jail staff say he violated his bond by calling a victim 45 times from jail phones.
Kyle Champagne, 32, of Chamberlain, has been lodged in the Brule County Jail since Dec. 14, 2021, when police charged him with child abuse, kidnapping and domestic assault after his girlfriend jumped from a moving car with a baby to escape him .
As part of his bond conditions from his December arrest, Champagne signed bond paperwork acknowledging he shall not have any contact with the victims. However, call logs from the Brule County Jail allege Champagne used a jail phone to call the victim on 45 different occasions between the evening of Dec. 15 and Dec. 28, 2021.
While some calls lasted only 20 seconds, others lasted longer than 20 minutes. In total, the calls lasted two hours, 40 minutes and 47 seconds — though phone records obtained by the Mitchell Republic do not specify which calls were answered, nor who answered them.
As each phone call constitutes a separate attempt to contact a victim, Champagne was charged with 45 separate counts of contacting a victim prior to a court appearance, each a Class 1 misdemeanor.
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If Champagne were to be convicted and sentenced for the alleged offenses, he could face 45 years in a county jail and a fine of up to $90,000.
A sentence in this case would be in addition to any potential sentence if he’s convicted in his other case — which involved five felonies, two misdemeanors and designates him as a habitual offender. For those charges, he faces 53 years in prison and a $106,000 fine.
Champagne's criminal record includes 12 prior criminal convictions since 2007 for crimes including simple domestic assault, ingestion of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana, disorderly conduct and more. The court has labeled him a habitual felonious offender.
A jury trial is set to begin March 21 for his charges of child abuse, kidnapping, domestic assault and more, while no date has been set for charges pertaining to the phone calls.
