The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

  Before Harris County District Court Judge Kelli Johnson took at least a month off from work for personal matters following a crisis intervention call at her house, she was pulled over for multiple traffic violations and then volunteered to do a field sobriety test. ABC13 obtained a body-worn camera video of the encounter through an open records request. The Harris County Sheriff's Office explained that most of the video is black due to an "obstruction," but the audio is clear. Sgt. Colin McHugh made the initial stop. Johnson: "I'm a judge." McHugh: "You're a judge?" Johnson: "A criminal district judge. Yes." The stop happened at about 8 p.m. on April 12, three days before Johnson found Brian Coulter guilty of murdering his girlfriend's son, whose body was left to rot for a year. She mentioned the case twice during the 45-minute-long encounter and asked a second deputy, who arrived, to give her the Standard Field Sobriety Test (S...

  Our guest on this episode of The Bail Post is the sitting district attorney for Harris County- Kim Ogg.  D.A. Ogg was first elected to become district attorney in 2016 with the support of a Soros political group.  She was re-elected in 2020 without the support of a Soros political group. D.A. Ogg was present for all the inside political discussions for criminal justice reform/bail reform in Harris County.  D.A. Ogg initially supported the reforms, but once she concluded that the proposed reforms went too far, she opposed them. On this episode of The Bail Post D.A. Ogg tells all.  Join us and see if you come to the same conclusion that we did-  Wow! Audio Podcast- Also available on: Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-                        CLICK HERE Google Podcasts-        CLICK HERE Podcast Index- ...

  A judge ordered Harris County to hold a new election for the 180th District Court judge after Republican candidate Tami Pierce, who narrowly lost to Democratic Judge DaSean Jones, filed a lawsuit challenging the results. Jones won by a margin of 449 votes in 2022. Judge David Peeples, a visiting judge from Bexar County, issued the order Wednesday. * * *  In the findings of fact and conclusions of law, Peeples said 983 votes cast in the 2022 race were determined to be invalid because voters lived outside Harris County or had other residency-related issues. Additionally, 445 voters did not show a valid form of photo identification and 48 mail ballots lacked required signatures or were not received before the deadline. More than a year after Pierce filed the election contest, the court ordered Jones to pay Pierce more than $65,000 in attorney fees, which Peeples said was reasonable given Jones’ motion to dismiss the case. “This court held that Jones’s motion to dismiss was with...

  Houston Police Chief Troy Finner has released some new information regarding criminal cases that were suspended.  Last week, Finner identified 4,017 cases of alleged sexual assault administratively suspended for "lack of personnel" - investigations essentially kicked to the curb back to 2016. "Am I proud about this? No, I'm angry, okay, because I know we are better, and we are going to make it right, and we will make it right. We are still short of staff and some people say 2,000 officers, so we do the best that we can do, but that's not good enough when we are not investigating sexual assaults," said Finner. On Monday afternoon, Houston police released a new statement saying, "Our review of adult sex crime cases suspended with a code of "lack of personnel" has expanded to include all other divisions in the department found to be using that same code. We have determined that department-wide approximately 264,000 such incident reports since 2...

On this episode of The Bail Post, we discuss two different counties approaches to federal bail litigation.  In both counties, the federal courts entered preliminary injunctions to fundamentally change local bail procedures.  In Schultz v. Alabama, the county appealed, refused to settle and fought the litigation every step of the way.  The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the preliminary injunction and returned control of bail back to the county.  In contrast, in O'Donnell v. Harris County, the county appealed and won only to have the trial court enter a new preliminary injunction.  It was appealed as well and the 5th Circuit stayed the 2nd preliminary injunction stating that there was a substantial likelihood that the judges would win again.  However, the case did not go forward because there was an election and new judges were elected who promised to resolve the litigation.  A settlement was entered that tied the hands of the judges going fo...

  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)...

Earlier this month, 28-year-old Henry Wilson only needed $10 to post bond and walk out of jail. According to his criminal history, he's spent more than a decade breaking into vehicles and stealing guns. "If you want to define a habitual offender, particularly a property offender, you've got to put Henry Wilson in your top five," said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers. Since 2012, Wilson has racked up eight misdemeanor convictions and three felony convictions. "He's been in and out of the system multiple times," said Doug Griffith President of the Houston Police Officers Union.  And mostly for the same thing, burglary of a motor vehicle and stealing guns. "Half of Houston has been in that situation where they've had their car broken into," Griffith said. "I know it happened to me twice." "People like Wilson, property offenders wreak more havoc in a community than quite frankly a good percentage of violent offenders," said Ka...

Attorney At Law Magazine Article by Ken W. Good  For the past year, veteran court watchers have been eagerly waiting for the other shoe to drop with the second en banc opinion in Daves v. Dallas County pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In January 2022, the court issued the first en banc opinion, Daves I, which held that both county court judges and district court judges were state actors who could not be sued in federal court pursuant to 42 USC §l983 (which reversed a ruling to the contrary in ODonnell I) regarding possible federal oversight of ongoing criminal cases including setting bail. In an unusual move, the Fifth Circuit remanded the case for the trial court to make certain findings, but retained jurisdiction for final disposition of the case en banc. On March 31, the court issued its second and final en banc decision in Daves II. The ruling was stunning while entirely logical, with its impact certain to reverberate for years. To have a...

On March 31, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down the long awaited second en banc opinion in Daves v. Dallas County .  The opinon has some strident language.  The court of appeals held that neither Daves v. Dallas County , nor ODonnell v. Harris County should have ever been litigated in federal court.  On this weeks episode of The Bail Post we discuss the new opinion from the Fifth Circuit and address the  potential impact the opinion will have.   Also available on: Apple Podcasts-            CLICK HERE Spotify-                        CLICK HERE Google Podcasts-        CLICK HERE Podcast Index-            CLICK HERE Amazon Music-          CLICK HERE Stitcher-           ...

Former attorney John O'Neill speaks out on the Fifth Circuit's  decision in the Daves' case which concludes that ODonnell should never have been file in federal court.  The ODonnell case was the last case Mr. O'Neill tried in his career.  He speaks about how the case came about and how he believes Judge Rosenthal lost her way on the case.  O'Neill also highlights how Harris County was one of the safest of the large counties in the country at the time and is now one of the large counties with the most crime. To see more  CLICK HERE .

On March 8, the Texas Commission on Jail Standards told Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez they have 30 days to take appropriate corrective action. "I'm alarmed," said State Senator John Whitmire. "I don't run Harris County, but I do feel a responsibility to sound the alarm that we cannot continue to function with an out of compliance jail." In an only on Fox report last month, two former Harris County Jail employees who quit told us inmates were the ones running the show. Those employees, who asked to be anonymous said, "Drugs are rampant. You'd see gang intimations," and, "there's an expectation you will be welcomed through violence." In a February 16 report, Harris County Jail inmate Kyle French told us he witnessed detention officers doing drugs in the 701 Clinic. To see more CLICK HERE .

I. Introduction In the last few years, there have been proposals for bail reform across the United States.  In some states, when the reform sought at the state legislature did not appear likely, litigation was initiated to attempt to force reforms.  In Texas, litigation was initiated in Harris County entitled ODonnell v. Harris County alleging that misdemeanor bail practices violated procedural due process.  Even though judges normally cannot be sued under 42 USC 1983, the plaintiffs argued that county court judges were acting as county policy makers when they adopted a bail schedule.  The district court agreed and refused to dismiss the case.  Additionally, the trial court denied a motion to dismiss based upon the doctrine of abstention.  Thereafter, the district court held that Harris County's misdemeanor practices violated the constitution and entered a preliminary injunction.  The injunction was reversed.  ( ODonnell I) .  The district c...

  by Ken W. Good Published October 19, 2022 Attorney at Law Magazine Crime is bad in Harris County, Texas. I mean, really bad. So bad, in fact, that even neighboring counties recognize it. On the highway between Harris County and neighboring Montgomery County there is a billboard that proclaims, “Criminals: This is Montgomery County. We Fund Law Enforcement. We Prosecute.” They mean it, too. This month in Montgomery County, two individuals were observed stealing catalytic converters from a vehicle. The suspects fled the scene and were pursued by police officers after they were confronted. Following their apprehension, it was learned that both had extensive criminal histories in the Harris County area and were driving a stolen vehicle. Upon their arrest, both suspects asked the officers if they were in Harris County, where prosecutions almost never happen. They were told, “Not today.” The two thieves’ luck had run out because they had crossed over into law-and-order Montgomery Count...