The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

  Listen to this podcast to find out the REAL numbers regarding Bail Reform and reoffense rates in New York.  40/50/60% is a VERY different story than the 2% you hear from the author of the bill and her merry band of supporters in Albany. Jim Quinn is a former executive assistant DA to Richard A Brown, former DA of Queens County. Jim was an ADA in the Queens DAs office for 42 years and retired in 2019. Are the supporters of bad bail reform acting for the best interest of the voters or are they acting in the best interests of career criminals, gangs and organized crime?  Would they be doing anything differently if they were acting on behalf of these groups?  3,000 additional victims because of bad bail reform. Over 300 deaths as a result of bad bail reform. There were 7,800 people being held in Rickers at the time bad bail reform passed.  After bad bail reform passed, the criminal justice system released around 2,000 inmates.  Crime immediately increased.  The current plan is to limit j

  A Maine man whose $10,000 bail in a fentanyl trafficking case was posted by a controversial advocacy group has defaulted in the case.  When Ronald W. Stanley's court-appointed attorney asked Salem Superior Court Judge Salim Tabit on Thursday not to order that $10,000 bail forfeited to the state and instead return it to the nonprofit Massachusetts Bail Fund, the judge said no.  "Not when I'm sitting here is it going back to the Bail Fund," said Tabit.  No one from the organization appeared in response to a notice that the forfeiture hearing was scheduled for Thursday.  That means barring a change of heart by the judge, the $10,000 cash will be turned over to the state's general fund. Bail is an amount of money that is used as a way of ensuring a person returns to court for trial and pre-trial proceedings rather than flee the jurisdiction. If a defendant fails to appear, that money is forfeited to the state.  The potential loss of what can be a significant amount

  Legislation aimed at putting limits on groups that post bail for inmates gained momentum Wednesday in Kentucky’s legislature, a week after a suspected gunman’s release from jail after being charged with shooting at a Louisville mayoral candidate. The bill’s supporters said the case of Quintez Brown — who is charged with opening fire on the candidate — highlighted the need to restrict organizations that bail out inmates. Opponents asked lawmaker not to react with “a heavy hand,” saying it would result in poor people languishing in jail. The Kentucky House Judiciary Committee advanced the measure, which would limit charitable organizations to post bail only for inmates being held on bond amounts up to $5,000. “We’re not trying to outlaw these entities,” said Republican Rep. Jason Nemes, a leading sponsor of the bill. “We’re trying to say that they can’t bail people out for serious offenses.” Brown, a social justice activist running as an independent for Louisville’s metro council, has

  An Indiana bill that would restrict charitable bail funds is on its way to becoming law despite protests at the statehouse. Charitable bail funds are groups that collect money to pay bail for those who can’t afford it. House Bill 1300 would make it more difficult for those groups to operate in Indiana by placing certain restrictions on them. Indiana’s Senate passed the bill on Thursday, moving it into the final phases of the legislative process. It will head to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s desk for approval, after it’s signed by the House speaker and Senate president and reviewed by the attorney general. “I think there are tons of people in Indianapolis who are scared to walk downtown,” said state Sen. Aaron Freeman, who sponsored the bill. “And that is an indictment on all of us. It is sad. Will this bill fix it? No. I’m not telling you it will. But it will help.” Freeman, a Republican from Indianapolis, combined similar legislation he authored with HB 1300. It limits charitable funds to bai

  Jency Diaz had been arrested and charged for domestic assault in the middle of the night — just past 1 a.m. He had been brought before a bail commissioner, deemed a low risk and released on $200 bail. Hours later, he returned to the victim, beat her brutally and sexually assaulted her. He was arrested a second time that same day. The grim story — from December 2020 — has faded from headlines, but it’s become a catalyst for some to reevaluate the state’s bail reform law. That law passed in 2018 with the intent of reducing the number of lower-income people in the state held without bail. But a group of lawmakers, prompted by police departments and police unions, are pushing this year to pull it back. And advocates for the original bail reform law say they are now fighting to keep it intact. A new bill this year, SB 294, would require that any person charged with any of 13 violent offenses be given a rebuttable presumption that they should be denied bail. The bill would cause people cha

  The Louisville Community Bail Fund has drawn attention after bailing out a man charged with attempted murder of Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg on a $100,000 bond. According to a WAVE Troubleshooter investigation, a Jefferson Circuit Court judge ruled to take the group’s money back after the person they bailed out was arrested again. Their attorney told WAVE that a person posting a bond should not be penalized if the terms are broken, but the judge disagreed. The Louisville Community Bail Fund, or LCBF, was the subject of exclusive WAVE Troubleshooter investigations before it was revealed that the organization was posting high bonds for people accused of violent crimes such as domestic violence, rape, and even murder, according to court records. Most recently, the LCBF posted a $100,000 bond for Quintez Brown, who allegedly opened fire inside Greenberg’s office in an attempt to kill him. Brown, who was once known as a social justice activist who spoke out against gun vio

  A suspect bailed out of the Bexar County Jail despite two recent charges of child sex abuse and elder abuse. It’s the latest case uncovered by News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila’s investigation into bail reform. Bexar County has now started posting information on suspects bailed out by Texas Organizing Project, or TOP, the bail reform group Jaie reported on in his first story. We found what may be the worst case yet of a repeat offender whose bond was reduced so TOP could bail him out. Texas Organizing Project has bonded out hundreds of inmates from the county jail. The group says these are low level offenders who are poor and shouldn't have to sit in jail awaiting trial because they pose no real threat. “I would have to say that everyone's entitled to bail," said Laquita Garcia of Texas Organizing Project. In April of 2020, TOP bonded out Paul Mena who had been arrested on a drug charge. However, court records show at the time Mena also had an elder abuse charge against

  A man already registered as a sex offender is accused of sexually assaulting a child, and the 8 News Now I-Team has uncovered multiple warning signs. Willie Collins was considered high risk five months ago. But still, a judge made a decision to allow him to walk the streets. Now, police say he sexually assaulted a child walking to school. Collins made his first court appearance Friday, a day after he was taken into custody, accused of sexually assaulting a boy. “How you doing, judge. Good morning,” Collins said in court. Police describe Thursday’s incident. “Mr. Collins approached the male, our victim, and simulated that he had a firearm and said he would kill the victim if he did not comply with his request,” said Lt. Jason Johansson of Metro’s Sex Crimes Section. “He then directed the victim to a back alley located on the north side of Tonopah.” This isn’t the first time Collins has been in court. In fact, police say he was wearing an ankle monitor. He was accused of robbery in Sep

  The family of a teenage girl killed by someone who had been bailed out by The Bail Project, is suing the organization. Madelynn Troutt died in March 2021 after being hit by a stolen vehicle driven by Michael Dewitt. In an exclusive investigation, WAVE News Troubleshooters uncovered The Bail Project had posted $5,000 for Dewitt to be let out of jail on other charges just two weeks before the crash. On March 1, police say Dewitt went on a drug-infused crime spree which included holding a woman at gunpoint and stealing her truck. He would then crash the truck into the 17-year-old Butler High School cheerleader’s vehicle. In June 2020, DeWitt was charged with possession of methamphetamine. In that citation report, the officer wrote they gave him a citation to report to court on a given date, but Dewitt never showed up. A deeper dive into his history revealed at least 10 more arrests from the time he was 19 and living in the state of Ohio. Again, officers noted that he was constantly in t

  In this week’s Ark-La-Miss Most Wanted, Chelsea Monae highlights a suspect wanted by police after running over two local bail bondsmen who were picking him up on three felony warrants. On December 8, 2021, bail bondsmen went to retrieve Lowery on the above mentioned warrants which included one count of Failure to Appear in Court. When bondsmen made contact with Lowery, he was sitting inside the driver’s side of a vehicle on South 8th Street in Monroe. The bondsmen announced themselves and began to open the vehicle door and attempted to apprehend him, but were unsuccessful. Lowery then put the vehicle in reverse and struck both bondsmen with the door, knocking them both to the ground. Have you seen Anthony A. Lowery? He is described as a Black Male, six feet tall and 200 pounds. Submit your tip to Crime Stoppers at 318-388-CASH or your local law enforcement agency. Remember any tip submitted in this case or any other case will always remain anonymous. To see more CLICK HERE .

  Legislation aimed at putting limits on groups that post bail for inmates gained momentum Wednesday in Kentucky’s legislature, a week after a suspected gunman’s release from jail after being charged with shooting at a Louisville mayoral candidate. The bill’s supporters said the case of Quintez Brown — who is charged with opening fire on the candidate — highlighted the need to restrict organizations that bail out inmates. Opponents asked lawmaker not to react with “a heavy hand,” saying it would result in poor people languishing in jail. The Kentucky House Judiciary Committee advanced the measure, which would limit charitable organizations to post bail only for inmates being held on bond amounts up to $5,000. “We’re not trying to outlaw these entities,” said Republican Rep. Jason Nemes, a leading sponsor of the bill. “We’re trying to say that they can’t bail people out for serious offenses.” Brown, a social justice activist running as an independent for Louisville’s metro council, has

  As Democrats work to leave their controversial “defund the police” movement in the past, their party’s embrace of more complicated, but still decisively liberal, criminal justice reforms could leave candidates nationwide vulnerable in November. Democratic lawmakers have spent years promoting and implementing the elimination of cash bail, sentencing reductions, juvenile prosecution reform, and other changes that critics blame for the increase in violence experienced by most major cities. Hoping to confront what polls suggest is a growing concern among voters about the country’s rise in crime, many Democrats have spent months insisting that they don’t collectively support the politically destructive push to take money away from police budgets. President Joe Biden touched off an effort in June of last year to distance his party from “defund the police” supporters with a high-profile speech that explicitly rejected the idea of cutting law enforcement funding, and his top aides amplified

  Republican senators demand a government investigation into taxpayer money used to fund charitable bail organizations that free accused criminals from jail before they go to court.  Sen. Mike Braun, Indiana, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky, wrote a Tuesday letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office asking the nonpartisan fact-finding body to investigate bail service providers. “We are deeply concerned by the prospect that taxpayer dollars are being allocated to nonprofit entities which post bail for individuals, but are not held responsible to the same standards of traditional bail agents within their territory,” the senators wrote in a letter addressed to the GAO. This letter was first obtained by Fox News Digital. Senators want to know which federally funded non-profits provide bail services and how much taxpayer money they receive. They also want to know if there are any restrictions on federal dollars being used to get criminal defendants out of jail. The

  With homicides and property crimes rising in San Antonio and other U.S. cities some are questioning more lenient bail practices. Are they putting repeat offenders back on the street? And why is Bexar County helping? News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila investigates what's happening at the county jail and the battle over bail. The county and the bail reform group it's working with say cash bail discriminates against the poor, and inmates should be released on little to no bond if they pose little risk to society. However, records show some they've bailed out have extensive criminal records and a history of not showing up to court. Police Chief William McManus mentioned bail as a factor last month when announcing San Antonio's 30 percent increase in homicides and jump in property crime. “There's not a whole lot of pretrial detention going on right now, most of these folks are getting out," McManus told reporters. Since 2020, a group called the Texas Organizing Pro

  The suspect sought in a Chicago train robbery has been identified as a Loyola University student recognized by his own mother, who reportedly dragged him into the police station to turn himself in.   Zion Brown, an 18-year-old sophomore at Loyola University Chicago, has been charged with armed robbery after allegedly stealing about $100 in cash at gunpoint from a Metra train conductor Tuesday afternoon, WBBM-TV reported. After recognizing photos of a masked suspect – seen glancing into a station security camera – shared by police and reported by the media as her son, Brown’s mother brought him into a police station in Calumet City for him to turn himself in, CWB Chicago reported. The detail was revealed at Brown’s bond hearing, where he was represented by a private defense attorney, who argued his client was hungry and was looking for something to eat.  Brown reportedly attended class after the armed holdup, and his lawyer asked the judge to remember her own days as a hungry college

  For more than a year, we've repeatedly asked Judges Hillary Unger, Greg Glass, and Jason Luong for interviews for Breaking Bond reports. All those requests were ignored. Three candidates running against them were more than happy to talk to us. Last September, Houston Police Department Officer Bill Jeffery was killed in a gun battle with 30-year-old Deon Ledet, a habitual criminal and wanted fugitive at the time.  The DA's office asked 208th Criminal District Court Judge Greg Glass to deny Ledet bond. Instead, Judge Glass lowered Ledet's bond to just $20,000. "This court has had so much bad publicity with the release of repeat violent offenders and I know I can make a change there," said prosecutor Beverly Armstrong, whose running against Judge Glass.  "I would look at whether this was your first-time, fifth-time, tenth-time," Armstrong said. "I would look at is there demonstrated evidence of danger to society," In October 2021, we told you ho

  An unhinged man with a history of attacking strangers randomly slugged a 4-year-old boy in the head in Times Square — then promptly got lit up like the lights on Broadway by two women, with the child’s mother also stepping in to help restrain him until officers arrived, law enforcement sources and prosecutors said. Babacar Mbaye, 34, was arrested Thursday after the unprovoked broad-daylight attack at 46th Street and Seventh Avenue at the Crossroads of the World, the NYPD said. The brute allegedly hit the child at around 3:20 p.m. as the area bustled with pedestrians enjoying an unseasonably warm afternoon. He was then tackled by the child’s mom and another woman, according to the NYPD, law enforcement and security footage obtained by The Post. The video showed the two heroic women racing in front of the TKTS bleachers to take down the creep. One of them tackled the suspect just inches away from Seventh Avenue traffic while the other swung an object that appeared to be a bottle or rol