The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

  This is the second article in a series entitled "Right on Crime Wrong on Crime."  This series seeks to review the history of positions taken by Right on Crime/TPPF to see how their positions have held up to the test of time. In this edition the focus is New York's 2019 bail reform law. In 2015, Marc Levin, the director of Right On Crime, a conservative criminal justice think tank, told MSNBC, “So I’m pleased with New York’s initiative [for bail reform] and it’s certainly consistent with what we’ve been advocating.”  To see the original article CLICK HERE . In 2019, New York enacted major bail reform that went into effect on January 1, 2020 right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The statute set out a list of crimes in which the trial court was required to release a defendant without bail.  This form of release is referred to as "Simple Release" where the defendant is not required to give any security that he or she will appear for court other than th

       In Harris County, law enforcement blames bad bail reforms for increasing crime.  The district attorney's office has issued a report agreeing.  You can see the report HERE .  Crime Stoppers has compiled a list of over 150 individuals who have been killed  by people some of whom were already out on bond for murder.  This has lead some to argue that in Harris County you get one free murder before you will be denied bail for murder.  The district attorneys' office blames the courts for not denying bail and the judges blame the district attorneys' office for filing motion to set high bail, but not setting the motion for a hearing.  The only thing that everyone can agree on is that crime is increasing.  Recently, the commissioners court passed a resolution asking the Harris County Bail Bond Board to pass a local rule regulating what bondsmen charge arguing that the bondsmen's failure to charge a high enough fee was the cause of increased crime  Four years ago, Harris

San Angelo, Texas has a deep history that dates so far back that it predates all of our known Texas history.  As of 1600, the area had already been inhabited for over a thousand years by indigenous peoples.  In 1632, Spain created a short-lived mission to serve the Indians.  Other expeditions entered into the area to attempt to colonize the region in the next few decades. The city of San Angelo was found in 1867 when the United States built Fort Concho designed to protect the frontier. The town was settled by Bartholomew J. DeWitt.  He named the town after his wife, Carolina Angela.  The name was changed to San Angela and then to San Angelo at the insistence of the United States Postal Service.  The town grew when it was designated the county set in the 1880s and later growth was aided by railroad construction.  The town also grew after a tuberculosis outbreak hit the United States in the early 1900s and many patients moved there to take advantage of the climate. The bail industry acro

  For the first two weeks of March, a dark cloud loomed over East Coast cities. Someone was traveling between New York and Washington, D.C., shooting homeless people as if for sport. At least two were dead and three wounded. Who could be so wantonly callous? On March 15, Gerald Brevard III, a career criminal and drifter, was arrested in connection with one of the murders. He is also under suspicion for the others. It turns out that Brevard was a free man only because a Virginia prosecutor systematically refuses to do his job. He reportedly even demands that his staff seek the lightest possible sentences for criminals, including the most violent. Steve Descano, a northern Virginia commonwealth's attorney whose political career has been bankrolled by George Soros in six-figure helpings, had Brevard in custody as recently as December 2020. Initially, Brevard faced three felony charges in Fairfax County and a life sentence in connection with a burglary and an earlier incident in which

  CBS2's Aundrea Cline-Thomas hosts a panel discussion on bail reform, hearing from retired NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Ben Tucker, retired Judge Jeffrey Cohen and Brooklyn Assemblywoman Latrice Walker. To see more CLICK HERE .

  More than a dozen LGBTQ groups are sending a warning to top officials in state government: Don’t roll back the progress made on bail reform and other related policies. Statewide LGBTQ advocacy groups, city-based political clubs, attorneys, and others delivered a joint letter on March 25 to Governor Kathy Hochul, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to discourage them from caving in to pressure over bail reform and other changes enacted in recent years. LGBTQ groups are the latest among a wide range of voices — including youth groups and family members of incarcerated individuals — to speak out following a New York Post report indicating that the governor created a 10-point plan to revisit parts of the reforms related to bail, discovery, and Raise the Age. “We applaud Governor Hochul and both houses for passing several bills and funding initiatives that support LGBTQ+ New Yorkers,” the letter noted. “That is why it is particularly dist

  New York City has experienced an alarming rise in violence over the past two years. From 2019 to 2021, murders went up 52 percent, shootings went up 104 percent, burglary went up 16 percent and car theft went up 91 percent, according to statistics from the New York Police Department. While all New Yorkers are affected by rising crime, the brunt of the increase is borne by Black New Yorkers. In 2020, Black New Yorkers, who make up about 24 percent of the city’s population, were the victims in 65 percent of murders and 74 percent of shootings. They were also the largest racial demographic among victims of felony assault and rape. It is hard not to notice that these tragic trends have emerged alongside the introduction of policies that were supposed to help Black New Yorkers — specifically, by reducing the impact of the criminal justice system on their lives. Black New Yorkers are disproportionately represented among those who are arrested, convicted and incarcerated in the city. Over t

  Nowhere is the departure of Democrats from the common sense of ordinary voters more evident than on the issue of crime and policing. Democrats are associated with a wave of progressive public prosecutors who seem quite hesitant about keeping criminals off the street, even as a spike in violent crimes like murders and carjacking sweeps the nation. This is twinned to a climate of tolerance and non-prosecution for lesser crimes that is degrading the quality of life in many cities under Democratic control. The fact is that ordinary voters hate crime and want something done about it. They’re not particularly impressed by disembodied talk about the availability of guns that does not include enforcing the law against the criminals who actually use these guns. Nor do they respond well to assurances that progressive approaches to law enforcement that include less law enforcement will—eventually—work even as crime surges and the quality of life deteriorates. Reflecting these views, voters in t

  Just a few days ago, smash-and-grab suspects targeted a Beverly Hills jewelry store in broad daylight with sledgehammers, stealing items worth up to $5 million. “I told my employee, ‘Get on the floor,'” Peter Sedghi, owner of the jewelry store, told the New York Post of the looting that unfolded Tuesday. “As soon as I heard what I thought were gunshots finally stop, I grabbed my gun. First, I made sure my employees were OK. I then went outside, but they were already gone.” At least five suspects wearing face masks used sledgehammers to break the glass of Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday, according to police. Sedghi said it took the suspects eight or 10 swings of the sledgehammers to break the thick glass. He estimates the suspects stole between $3 and $5 million, and “knew” which high-end items to take. “We sell high-end jewelry and watches so they took big diamonds, big necklaces, Rolexes, Patek Philippe … they knew exactly what to take,” Sedghi told the

  On Friday, the Lousiana Supreme Court handed down a ruling in which a Baton Rouge police officer will be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against Black Lives Matter organizer DeRay Mckesson. The police officer, who remains anonymous at the time of this writing, was apparently injured when he was hit with objects by violent protestors while in the process of making an arrest during a riot in 2016. Local news reported that "...the officer, identified in a lawsuit as John Doe instead of by name, claims he was seriously wounded after demonstrators began to 'loot a Circle K' for water bottles," and that "...the demonstration was part of larger demonstrations in the aftermath of the police killing of Alton Sterling." The rioters then started to throw the water bottles at officers who were arresting their friends. According to the lawsuit, events escalated from simple water bottles quickly, "When the Defendants ran out of the water bottles they were throwin

  An Illinois state representative just introduced a bill to authorize a recall against State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for creating “a crisis of confidence in the Cook County judicial system.” In June, San Francisco residents will decide whether to oust District Attorney Chesa Boudin, elected in November 2019. And in Los Angeles, an effort to recall DA George Gascón, who took office less than 18 months ago, has support from the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County, a group representing local prosecutors. (Initial recall attempts against Gascón and Boudin, both launched in 2021, failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.) While it is true that any California elected official can be recalled for any reason, the provision authorizing this remedy in the state constitution was designed as a bulwark against corruption and malfeasance. Should the Illinois bill become law, it would do the same in Foxx’s case. What have these prosecutors done to warrant

  New York City Comptroller Brad Lander just issued an analysis of the state’s 2019 bail law. And the crisis, according to Lander, is not that crime has skyrocketed — it’s that too many people are still being held in jail. Buckle your seatbelts. The most glaring problem with Lander’s report is that it claims bail reform hasn’t affected city crime rates — but nowhere does it cite city crime statistics. For the record, Mr. Comptroller, there were 319 murders in 2019, before bail reform took effect; there were 468 in 2020 and 485 in 2021, the highest numbers since 2011. Overall crime to date this year is up 45% over last year, fueled primarily by a 60% rise in grand larceny and an 85% rise in car theft — coincidentally, two charges for which judges are not allowed to set bail under the 2019 law. Nowhere in the report is the word “recidivism.” Nowhere is there an analysis of the more than 2,000 career criminals released under the 2019 law and their criminal activity since then. And nowhere

"Every day when he woke up before he left for school, he'd give me a hug. Before he went to bed, he'd give me a hug. That's probably what I miss the most," said April Wright. Wright has gone 367 days with no hugs from her only son, 17-year-old Corey Lennard Thompson Jr.  Police say he was killed by 18-year-old James Sotelo, someone Corey thought was a friend. "Not only was he shot multiple times, he was shot in the back," Wright said. "He was obviously leaving the situation." "The guy was out on an assaultive offense then he gets charged with murder," said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers. "They originally ask for a $150,000 bond and they reduce the bond to $100,000. He gets out and a month later, he's charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon." "His bond was reduced not once, but twice. It's hard to see a judge doing that," said Corey's mom. "It's Judge Josh Hill, 232 Criminal Distric

  The seemingly endless debate over bail reform in Hawaii has taken a new turn this year after a key House lawmaker declared she will block the funding needed to plan for a new jail until the state finally restructures the cash bail system that determines which arrestees are released, and which are detained. That move by House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke to explicitly link the controversial issue of bail reform with plans for a new jail to replace the Oahu Community Correctional Center may turn out to be a game changer. Earlier this month the state House passed a measure to allow many people accused of misdemeanors and petty misdemeanors to go free without posting bail while the court system decides their cases. House Bill 1567 was approved by the House in a lopsided 45-5 vote. That same bill won preliminary approval from the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee on Tuesday, but its future is still uncertain. Measures to overhaul Hawaii’s b