Bond is set at $50,000 for penbombing suspect's mother

A judge on Monday set a $50,000 bond for an administrative assistant whose sons are accused of packing a pen with powerful explosives, injuring another student at a Charlotte alternative school.

Tracy Bauguess, 37, was charged with three counts of malicious use of explosives causing injury and one count of possession of a weapon of mass destruction after investigators found dangerous amounts of an unstable explosive in her house.

She was originally given no bond. But on Monday, Judge Regan Miller reduced her bond to a total of $50,000.

Police say her son, 16-year-old Jessie Bauguess, sent a fellow student at Turning Point alternative school to the hospital with burns and other wounds when he packed a pen with a powerful explosive and took it to school. He's being held in jail under $47,500 bond.

Tracy Bauguess' other son, whose name hasn't been released because he's 15, appeared in juvenile court two weeks ago, but the outcome wasn't made public because such proceedings are closed.

Bomb squads shut down Bauguess’ neighborhood in northwest Charlotte and probed the house with robots for two days, carrying out controlled detonations of the explosive TATP that they found there. Three firefighters were hurt as some of the material they were testing exploded. Their injuries were minor.

At Tracy Bauguess' bond hearing on Monday, a prosecutor argued that Baugess knew what her sons were experimenting with explosives. They said explosives were found throughout the home off Mount Holly Road where the family had lived for four months.

"Chemicals were all over the house, in plain view," said Assistant District Attorney Madelaine Colbert, who said investigators found a hole in Tracy Bauguess' bedroom, apparently caused by an explosion. "She knew her son had been having trouble with the teacher. Neighbors had been hearing for a long time explosions coming from the residence … She was aware of what was going on."

But Baugess' attorney, Jacob Setzer, described his client as a harmless administrative assistant and single mother, who never knew her children were in danger or endangering others. Setzer said she voluntarily allowed investigators to search her home and turned herself in shortly after learning authorities had issued warrants for her arrest.

Setzer said the case had been sensationalized.

"This is not some type of Columbine issue where guns are found throughout the house," Setzer said. "She still doesn't know what the chemicals are. I don't know what the chemicals are," Setzer said.