The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

  The Honorable Lee H. Rosenthal, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of Texas has dismissed Cause No. H-19-226; Russell v. Harris County ; In the United States District Court for the Sourthern District of Texas.  The case was dismissed August 31, 2023.  This will bring to close the litigation seeking to "force" Harris County to simply release defendants in felony criminal case proceedings. This litigation push started in Houston in another case called Odonnell v. Harris County .   In that case, Judge Rosenthal forced the county to adopt a simple release system for misdemeanor cases that has lead to an average of an 80% failure to appear rate over a two year period of time. After their "success" in the Odonnell  case, the same activists filed suit in Dallas County (the Daves  case) seeking to extend the Odonnell  ruling to felony cases as well.  Also, the activists filed suit in Galveston County (the Booth  case) and they filed a new suit in

  Mexican cartels are behind the spike in organized retail crime and are deeply entrenched in every level of the process, according to the federal government's chief investigative agency. Retailers nationwide sustained nearly $100 billion worth of losses in 2021, the highest year on record, according to the National Retail Federation report published in September 2022. The growing number of cartel-run theft rings around the country drove that figure up from $70 billion in 2019. "Organized retail crime is leading to more brazen and more violent attacks in retail stores throughout the country. Many of the criminal rings orchestrating these thefts are also involved in other serious criminal activity such as human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, weapon trafficking, and more," said Steve Francis, acting executive associate director for Homeland Security Investigations, in a statement. HSI is part of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcem

On August 8, 2023, the Texas Attorney General's office issued Atty Gen. Op. AC-002.  The Attorney General had been asked to interpret article 27.027 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure which was enacted as a part of SB 6.   The article applies when a defendant is charged with committing an offense that is a felony while they are currently out on bail in a pending case for another offense which is also a felony.  If the two cases are in different counties, then SB6 requires notification to be sent to the other court.  If the two offenses are in the same county, then only the judge over the first court can magistrate the defendant on the new charge. The statute contains an exception which allows the court to designate another court to perform the magistration. The question that the Attorney General's office was asked to address was if the court designated to perform the magistration on behalf of the district court is not also a district court judge would the magistrate or the

Anne Marie Schubert is a career prosecutor.  Schubert earned a bachelor's degree from Saint Mary’s College of California in 1986 and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco in 1989. Her career experience includes being the Sacramento County District Attorney, Supervising Deputy District Attorney of the Sacramento District Attorney's Office, and Deputy District Attorney of Contra Costa and Solano Counties. Schubert has been a board member of the National District Attorneys Association and has been affiliated with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids and Stand Up for Victims. On this episode of The Bail Post we discuss whether California has  reached a breaking point with rising crime and criminal justice reform.   If you would like to learn more about the letter from the Oakland NAACP (referenced in this episode) demanding action on crime from their local politicians  CLICK HERE . If you would like to learn more about the News Nation townhall mentioned in this episode CLICK HERE .  V

In Texas, the new rules for magistration went into effect on April 1, 2022 that required the review of a Public Safety Report setting out the defendant's criminal history before bail is set.  On Episode Number 40 of The Bail Post we discuss the lessons that have been learned after magistrating under the new rules for the last year.  Our guest is The Honorable Tamara Tinney who is a magistrate judge from Burnett County.  We discuss issues regarding certification of magistrations, bond modifications and other issues using the OCA System.  Other issues discussed involve the illusive solution regarding mental health patients in the criminal justice system and the impact on drug abuse. Video version of Podcast- To view on Youtube-  CLICK HERE . Audio only- Also available on: Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-                        CLICK HERE Google Podcasts-        CLICK HERE Podcast Index-            CLICK HERE Amazon Music-          CLICK HERE Stitcher-                  

  News Nation conducted a townhall on Crime in America on July 31, 2023.  Mayors and law enforcement personnel from across the country sought to answer one of the most pressing questions in America on Monday night: What are they doing to combat crime in their cities?  On the issue of bail reform, Durham, North Carolina, Mayor Elaine O’Neal is a former judge who isn’t convinced it can work without a viable alternative to get people to show up to court.  Here is the clip- (3 minutes starting at 35:53).  "You have to have a way to get people to court . . ." A New York woman says two men responsible for her son’s death were released from prison. She called bail reform a “runaway train” that is crashing into black and brown communities. The townhall also addressed how crime is affecting the bottom lines of businesses.  More than half of consumers think retail crimes like shopping or looting stores have surged in their community since the onset of the pandemic, a National Retail Fe

  The Oakland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) issued a letter to Oakland City leaders which said the movement to defund police has led to a “heyday” for criminals. “Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who murder and commit life threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals. If there are no consequences for committing crime in Oakland, crime will continue to soar,” the NAACP wrote. Criminals in the city are aware of local government shortcomings, the NAACP said, urging leaders to take immediate action in bolstering emergency response services such as the police department and 911 dispatch system. “We are in crisis and elected leaders must declare a state of emergency and bring resources together from the city, the county, and the state to end the crisis. We are 500 police

  According to KOMO News, on Thursday, July 20, while firefighters were battling a large warehouse fire in the Chinatown-International District (CID) they interrupted a theft while it was happening. Seattle fire officials told the outlet that nothing was taken this time, noting that Seattle police at the scene assisted in keeping their equipment secure as they battled the warehouse fire, but did express concern that fire units are becoming known targets for thieves. Kenny Stuart, president of IAFF Local 27, told the outlet, “We’ve seen greater incidents of actual thefts and attempted thefts of frontline equipment from fire apparatuses recently. We rely on our equipment so we can protect lives and property.” The previous week, thieves got into a unit parked in Ballard, and in the middle of the day in a busy parking lot, made off with four front-line rescue saws and a generator, totaling thousands of dollars of equipment. Last month, there were two separate incidents of people attempting