The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

J.E. "Eddie" Guerra is the Sheriff of Hidalgo servicing around 1 million people.  Sheriff Guerra was appointed to office after his predecessor resigned as a result of scandal.  Sheriff Guerra rebuilt trust with the public and was reelected multiple times by the voters.  Sheriff Guerra talks about the steps he took to rebuild trust with the public. Hidalgo County is a border county with Mexico.  As a result, Sheriff Guerra deals with all the things that a sheriff has to deal with and then on top of that he deals with border issues as well. Sheriff Guerra has won many awards.  He is known for sharing data with many different agencies and says that he does not care who gets credit for getting the arrest.  By all metrics, crime in Hidalgo County has gone down in Hidalgo County. Join us for this episode of The Bail Post as we talk to Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra. Audio Podcast- Also available on: Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-                        CLICK HE

U.S. Supreme Court Denied Cert. Allowing Fifth Circuit to End Federal Micromanagement of Ongoing State Criminal Cases by Ken W. Good In the labyrinth of legal battles waged in the expansive landscape of Texas, the saga of Daves v. Dallas County unfolded with deceptive simplicity. Initially framed as a straightforward confrontation between plaintiffs and the legal machinery of Dallas County, this saga eventually evolved into a convoluted odyssey involving constitutional interpretations, initial rulings that were later reversed and other judicial intricacies. What was supposed to be simple turned out to be anything but. To understand this litigation, a review must go all the way back to 2016. A group of plaintiffs brought suit against misdemeanor judges, the Harris County sheriff and Harris County in ODonnell v. Harris County, alleging violations of due process and equal protection. By 2017, Judge Lee Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a prelim

San Francisco’s doom loop just got worse. On the heals of the Hilton Hotel in downtown defaulting on their loan, another major player is packing up and heading out. KPMG, a prominent consulting and accounting firm, has decided to vacate its prestigious, namesake $400 million office tower. * * * * The root causes of this mass exodus are multifaceted, with businesses and residents citing escalating crime rates, an uncontrolled homelessness crisis, and the rise of remote work as primary factors driving them away from downtown San Francisco. * * * * Other highlights from the article- Nearly 100 retailers have shut their doors since the pandemics onset. In the first five months of 2023 alone, San Francisco witnessed 346 overdose deaths, marking an over 40 percent increase compared to the same period in 2022. The city’s high theft rates exacerbate this situation, with incidents like Walgreens in the city center being forced to chain their freezers to deter shoplifters. In Union Square of the

On this episode of The Bail Post, we reach several milestones.  First, this is episode number 50.  Second this is the start of Season 3 of the Bail Post. On Season 1, the first episode focused on what bondsmen do.  On Season 2, the first episode highlighted why the private industry was so much more successful than any other release mechanism. For Season 3, the first episode focuses on what it is that PBT does for the bondsmen of Texas.  Our guest is the new president of PBT, Irma Montemayor.  She talks about what it takes to run one of the best and most effective bail associations in the United States.  She also highlights the work that PBT engages in at the Texas Legislature. There is also a discussion regarding how PBT raises funds to be able to be active at the legislature.  Ms. Montemayor highlights the importance of PBT's continuing education class. Also, there was a discussion regarding the partnerships that PBT enters into with surety companies to provide additional funds to

  On this episode of The Bail Post we discuss Russell v. Harris County .  This case was filed to extend the ruling in ODonnell regarding misdemeanor judges issued by the Honorable Lee Rosenthal to the felony judges. When the case was originally filed, the plaintiffs did not even sue the district court judges.  Suit was filed against Harris County and the Harris County Sheriff.  Next, the case was "stayed" or put on hold to allow the parties to attempt to work out a settlement.  The case did not proceed as expected by the plaintiffs.  They were expecting a quick settlement where the county gave them everything they wanted like they did in ODonnell .   What the plaintiffs received in the end was a big fat dismissal.  Find out how this happened on this episode of The Bail Post. This podcast references that the United States Supreme Court would be ruling on a petition for cert. in Daves v. Dallas County in a few days.   On January 8, 2023, the Court denied the petition.  To lea

Lucy Adame-Clark was born in San Antonio, Texas. She attended Sidney Lanier High School and attended Southern Careers Institute in San Antonio for paralegal studies. Prior to becoming county clerk, Adame-Clark worked in the Bexar County Sheriff's office from 1997 to 2018. There she worked as a booking ID clerk from 1997 to 2008, a latent print examiner/AFIS in the criminal investigation division from 2008 to 2012, and a criminal processing clerk from 2013 until her election in 2018. According to Bexar County records, Adame-Clark was the first Latina and the first woman elected to the county clerk position. She is a member of the International Association for Identification and the Bexar County Bail Bond Board. She also serves as the Bexar County Treasurer and Chairman of the Records Management Committee. Outside of her professional career, Adame-Clark previously volunteered as the booster club president for the Southside Independent School District AFJROTC program and Democratic Pr

Following the death of George Floyd, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus proposed an extensive legislative package that included criminal justice reforms alongside reforms in education, health care and human services, and economic policy.  The bill was referred to as The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, commonly known as the SAFE-T Act. The bill made a number of reforms to the criminal justice system, affecting policing, pretrial detention and bail, sentencing, and corrections.  The Act's section on pretrial detention, which took effect in full on September 18, 2023, is also known as the Pretrial Fairness Act. On this episode on The Bail Post we discuss Illinois and the Safe-T Act. Audio Podcast- Also available on: Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-                        CLICK HERE Google Podcasts-        CLICK HERE Podcast Index-            CLICK HERE Amazon Music-          CLICK HERE Stitcher-                      CLICK HERE iHeart-           

  Rising Crime- Reality or Mirage? by Ken W. Good By definition, facts typically stand firm and unchallenged.  But lately, there has been a notable disagreement regarding the very existence of certain facts.  During the closing stages of the previous national election, one end of the political spectrum contended that the reported increase in crime was merely a matter of perception, rather than an actual rise.  They asserted that the opposing side had fabricated the issue of rising crime.  Over the past two years, this disagreement has persisted, with one faction rejecting the notion of escalating crime and instead asserting a disparity between public perception and reality. In a recent debate between a representative from Civil Rights Corps and myself, the Corps argued that crime rates were declining, attributing reports to the contrary as a fallacy.  Civil Rights Corps is an activist group behind numerous lawsuits pushing bad bail reforms even as they lose in the appellate courts.  Th

  On January 5, 2024, the United States Supreme Court of the United States held a conference on the petition for cert. filed in Daves v. Dallas County .   The petition for cert. raised two issues.  The first was abstention.  The Younger Abstention Doctrine  holds that federal courts should abstain from cases that are pending in state proceedings.  The federal appellate courts have suggested that the federal courts should not  attempt to "micromanage" ongoing criminal cases pending in the state courts.   This argument would seem to apply even more to this litigation.  Once the Fifth Circuit held that judges could not be sued in these types of lawsuits, the analysis should have been even more in favor of not getting involved in this type of litigation.  Since the judges are not proper parties, then why would plaintiffs be allowed to still sue, going around the judges, by suing only the county and the sheriff?  The Fifth Circuit held that Younger Abstention required that the fed