MyCase gives each of our clients a separate, private and secure website where we can share the calendars, documents, and billing details of each case with each client. Additionally, every item uploaded by our staff and by our clients into MyCase has a comment stream associated with it. Both the attorney and the client can use the comment stream to give status updates and leave comments. When that happens, real-time notifications are sent to all relevant parties, thus ensuring that everyone is kept up-to-speed about what is going on with each case and thereby guaranteeing that our clients are always aware of the progress of their case.

Furthermore, MyCase is the most secure way to protect attorney-client communication. Recent case-law has held that the attorney-client privilege may be waived if a client uses an insecure method of communication. This could include not only emailing an attorney using a person’s work computer or a shared computer which anyone else has access to, but it could even include calling an attorney on an employer’s telephone or with any other unsecured telephone. Additionally, cell phone communications have been intercepted in the past, and therefore the privilege could be waived by something as simple as using a cell phone to discuss privileged information with an attorney.

In order to avoid any potential problems, we have begun using the MyCase client portal to guarantee privacy with all communications between ourselves and our clients. MyCase, in addition to providing our clients with access to relevant court dates and documents in real-time, allows our clients to communicate directly with us in a safe and secure manner–thus ensuring protection of the attorney-client privilege. Our clients can send us secure messages and upload protected documents to us directly from within the MyCase portal, thereby eliminating the danger and risks associated with sending sensitive and privileged information through unsecure email addresses across the Internet.

Additionally, all information stored in the MyCase system is transmitted using the same 128-bit SSL encryption used by health-care providers, banks and other financial institutions. The information is then stored on the Amazon S3 system using 256-bit AES encryption.  S3 storage systems are distributed throughout the country in nondescript facilities which are protected by military grade perimeters where physical access to the hardware is strictly controlled by two-factor authentication and 24-hour security escorts (additional information regarding these security precautions is available here).

Finally, each and every document stored in our MyCase system is encrypted using a new and unique encryption key for each individual document, thus providing an additional layer of security. In other words, no unauthorized persons can get to our client data, and even the ones with physical access can’t do anything with it because it is encrypted beyond their ability to view it.

Our clients do not sit around wondering what is going on with their case, they know!  To use our MyCase portal, and have 24/7 access to all of the important details of your case any time you desire along with protected and private communication with us, we must first create a new private portal for you. So, the first step in getting access to MyCase on our system is to notify us that you want access.

This is achieved by providing us with your email address, as your email address will function as your user name on the system. Once we have confirmed the validity of the email address, and that you are the person requesting access to your own matter, an account will then be created. Once that is completed, a confirmation email will automatically be sent to you, providing you with instructions for completing the sign-up process.

The confirmation email will look like this:

Once you click the link to activate your account, a webpage will open allowing you to choose a password.  It will look like this:

After choosing a password, you will then be asked to confirm your address:

.

After updating your address, you will be taken to your new client homepage:

From the homepage, you can access your calendar events, upload and download documents related to your case, send and read secure communications between us and yourself, and access billing information, if any.  If you owe an outstanding balance, you can view that information here and even make payments online!

When a new event, document or comment is added to your case, you will receive an email notifying you that something has been added to your case.  The email will look like this:

You will notice that none of the details of the event, document or comments are sent using an insecure email. The email simply notifies you that you need to log in and access the new information using the secure, encrypted client portal.

Once you log back in, the event appears under your calendar page like this:

Once you view the calendar entry, you can review details of the event – including whether your appearance at the event is required or not!

Additionally, the system is designed to send you an email reminder (and you can choose when and how often you want those reminders, as well).  An email reminder for an event you will be required to attend will look like this:

I have added the red box to show you where to look for attendance requirements.  If you are not required to attend, the email reminder will look like this:

Should you have any questions about the MyCase portal, please do not hesitate to ask.

As stated therein, this policy applies to all defendants, whether in jail or out on bond.  Obviously, though, if the defendant is indigent and serving a term in prison, then that defendant may not have to pay court costs on the date of sentencing.  Whether such a defendant must pay has to be determined on a case-by-case basis, and a qualified criminal defense attorney should be consulted.

If, on the other hand, a defendant is being granted a term of community supervision (probation), then that defendant will very likely need to have his or her court costs available on the day the defendant is given probation.  If a defendant cannot even come up with the court costs on the day they are asking the judge to put them on probation, what chance does that defendant have of successfully completing the entire term of probation with all of the other fees and costs associated with it?  With that in mind, I am confident that a judge would think twice before agreeing to put someone on probation who starts off so poorly.

If, despite a defendant’s best efforts, a defendant cannot come up with all of his or her court costs, then the judge may be able to postpone the payment of court costs for up to thirty days.  The defendant’s attorney can make that request for the defendant.

Bell County Felony Cases

Bell County Misdemeanor Cases

Bell County Juvenile Cases

Subtotal Showing Expenditures and Grants

Grand Totals

* Has a Public Defender’s Office.

This data was obtained from the Task Force On Indigent Defense Public Access Website. The data is available on each county’s “County Data Sheet.”

The Bell County misdemeanor courts and associated departments are now fully moved into their new building at what the County is calling the Bell County Justice Center.  While it is too early to tell if adding the county departments to the building will mean that justice finally makes an appearance in the Justice Center, it will be welcome news for many now that both the felony and misdemeanor courts are in the same building for the first time in quite a few years.

Instead of the “temporary” courthouse annex on Second Avenue, all of the misdemeanor courts are now next to the district courts.  The physical address for all of the criminal courts is now 1201 Huey Road, Belton, Texas 76513. Here is a Google Map of the entrance from Loop 121 onto Huey Road.  You can click on the link labeled “Directions” to get detailed driving instructions from your location to the new complex:

Once you arrive at the intersection above, you can see the complex over to your left.  The turn onto Huey Road looks like this:

As you can see, the street sign indicates it is the 1200 block of Huey Road (even though Google thinks it is Huey Drive).  It intersects with the 2200 block of Loop 121.

Once you enter onto Huey Road, you’ll drive just a short bit to get to the entrance to the complex. 

The complex now consists of the county and district courts, the county and district prosecutors, the county and district clerks, the Indigent Defense department, the Pretrial Services department, the Bell County Jail, adult probation, and the Justice of the Peace for Precinct One.

There is only one public entrance for the entire building, and there are deputies on duty manning the metal detectors.  Therefore, please leave all of your guns, knives and bombs at home.

I cannot imagine what a nightmare the Justice Complex is going to be on Monday mornings when the parking lot is full of potential jurors, defendants, lawyers and the rest of the public trying to fit through the bottleneck that will undoubtedly occur.  I suppose the lesson is, “be early.”

If you are going to the Bell County Jail, you’ll turn to your right and just keep driving as far as you can.  Eventually you’ll run into the jail.  The entrance is in the corner, and you’ll have to walk a

bit across a little foot bridge to get there.  They have a beautiful round entrance area which you’ll see on your right as you walk by it with the summer sun beating down on you from above, but someone decided to put flag poles right in the middle of the driving surface and then on top of that someone roped off the entrance anyway.  A beautiful and convenient drop-off location blocked off with $3 worth of cheap rope.  That’s classy!

Regardless, the new courthouse complex is fantastic and it looks like a million dollars (though I suppose I should say it looks more like almost $100 million dollars)!  Even though the voters repeatedly voted it down, and even though the public may scream about the expense, I (for one) realize how badly the county needed this expansion.  Also, as a criminal defense attorney I previously spent a good chunk of my day driving back-and-forth between the district and county buildings.  At long last, I have one-stop shopping since the county’s “Justice Complex” is now open for business.  Let’s just hope that not all of that complex justice is out-of-stock.

See you at the new courthouse!

UPDATE: I received some calls from various persons who took issue with how I calculated this data.  I would point out that using this alternative methodology suggested results in this new table.  For anyone interested, here is the new methodology:  Go to this website at the Texas Office of Court Administration. Choose for report type "District Court Data Reports". For Report, choose "District Activity Summary by Case Type". On the new page, choose January through December of a particular year. The county is "Bell", the court is "All", and best format is "Export to Acrobat". Click Run Report and the data will appear. The bold numbers on the far right of the "Criminal Cases" report show totals for criminal felony data. If you take the number of "Total Cases on Docket" and subtract the "Cases Pending" at the start of the year, you get the total number of new cases (save that number as "NEW CASES"). Next, look at the bottom of that chart and it says "Cases in Which Attorney Appointed." That is the number of "APPOINTED CASES." If you divide APPOINTED CASES by number of NEW CASES, you’ll get the percentage of court appointed cases. Then, subtract the number of APPOINTED CASES from the number of NEW CASES and you’ll have the number of retained attorney cases.

NEW TABLE:

OLD TABLE:

UPDATE: Using either methodology, disposed cases for new cases, you get roughly the same numbers.  And either way shows a significant drop from 2008 to 2009.

Interesting.  In 2009 – even with the country in a major recession and presumably more Bell County citizens out of work than any of the other years for which data is available – the percentage of defendants with court-appointed attorneys dropped from 82% in 2008 to 55% last year.

Here’s a bar graph showing the changes:

What’s the reason for the change?  Perhaps you’ll recall an earlier post of mine (“Why high bail amounts cost taxpayers money”).  In that posting I argued that the high preset bail bond amounts imposed by Bell County magistrates result in criminal defendants qualifying for court-appointed attorneys because they’ve spent all of their money on bonding out of jail.

Well, since that post, the new Pretrial Services Office in Bell County has been bonding out more and more criminal defendants on PR Bonds.  So, even though the preset bail bond amounts have not lowered like they should have, it does not matter since PR Bond is getting more and more people out of jail and back to being productive members of society.

With more criminal defendants able to return to work, there have been more retained attorneys.  It’s nice to be vindicated by data.

According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, the Bell County district courts handled a wide variety of criminal cases during the year 2009.  Here is the breakdown of cases as per the OCA:

According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, the Bell County district courts handled 2,283 felony criminal cases during the year 2009. Of those cases, just 10% were cases which were resolved within the first 60 days after the case was filed. Only 7% were completed between 60 and 90 days, and another 6% were completed between 90 and 120 days. The majority of all felony criminal cases, some 77% (almost 8 out of every 10 cases filed), required more than 120 days to resolve.

Statewide, there were a total of 282,897 felony criminal cases resolved in 2009. Overall, almost one out of every three felony criminal cases (or 32%) were resolved within the first 60 days after being filed. There were an additional 9% of cases which were resolved within 60 and 90 days, and another 8% from 90 to 120 days. The remaining 51% of cases took more than 120 days to complete from date of filing to final resolution.

Misdemeanor Cases

According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, the Bell County misdemeanor courts handled 9,010 cases during 2009. Of those, 15% of all misdemeanor cases were resolved within the first 30 days after being filed. However, only 6% were completed between 31 and 60 days, and another 6% between 61 and 90 days. The majority of all misdemeanor criminal cases, some 73% (roughly 8 out of every 10 cases filed), took more than 90 days to resolve.

Statewide, there were 611,694 misdemeanor cases resolved during 2009. Of those, roughly one out of every four misdemeanor criminal cases (or 23%) were resolved within the first 30 days. Next, there were an additional 11% of cases which were resolved within 31 and 60 days, and then another 9% from 61 to 90 days. The remaining 57% took more than 90 days to complete.

The numbers from Bell and Lampasas Counties suggest that we need “9.5” district court judicial officers, while we supposedly only have “6.5” (here, page 46).  The explanation for this, according to the report, is that we are among the top twenty or so counties who have the highest average populations served per district court.

The most obvious question, then, is – who is our “.5” judicial officer that we already have?

The next most obvious question is – where are we going to put the three new judges?  The district courthouse is done, and the county is almost finished.  I understand that there will be a couple of extra county courtrooms available.  I don’t suppose there would be any problem with putting a district court on the “county court side” of the new courthouse. 

Or, maybe we could get two more county judges and just give them jurisdiction over all family law cases.  That would certainly free up the district courts!

During the last session of the Texas Legislature, a bill was passed to allow the creation of special “veterans court programs” in this state.  The governor signed the bill into law on June 19, 2009, and it became effective September 1, 2009.  What that means is that we could have already started this program.

The veterans court program was a small part of a larger law which was designed to address the special needs of the approximately 1.7 million veterans who reside in Texas.  Specifically, the law created the “Fund for Veterans’ Assistance.”  The fund awards grants “to enhance or improve veterans’ assistance programs, including veterans’ representation and counseling, and to make grants to local communities to address veterans’ needs.”  One of the most important improvements, though, was the establishment of special pretrial veterans court programs.

Here’s how the program works:  The first step is for the county commissioners court to authorize the court.  Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 617 authorizes the commissioners court of a county to establish a veterans court program for persons arrested for or charged with any misdemeanor or felony offense.  There are no limits—it could be as simple as a drug or alcohol-related crime, or even domestic violence cases.

However, there are some limits.  A veteran is only eligible to participate in the veterans court program if: 1) the prosecutor agrees to the defendant’s participation in the program and 2) if the court in which the criminal case is pending finds that the defendant is a veteran or current member of the United States armed forces, including a member of the reserves, national guard, or state guard; and that the veteran suffers from a brain injury, mental illness, or mental disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, that resulted from the defendant’s military service in a combat zone or other similar hazardous duty area and materially affected the defendant’s criminal conduct at issue in the case.  Finally, the veteran ultimately retains the right to choose whether to proceed through the veterans court program or to just go through the regular criminal justice system.

Once the veteran qualifies and agrees to participate, the veteran participates in a special pretrial program.  The prosecutor and the criminal defense attorney are supposed to work together in a “non-adversarial” fashion to create an “individualized treatment plan” for the veteran. 

The individualized treatment plan lasts from a minimum of six months up to the maximum length of probation for whatever offense was charged.  The veteran can choose to withdraw from the program at any time, but then the veteran loses the benefits which would have been gained by successfully completing the pretrial intervention program. 

What are those benefits?  Well, the most important one is that any charges against the veteran would be dismissed.  That’s pretty big.  Also, the veteran is then entitled to go back and have the offense expunged from his criminal history!  That’s a huge one.

The law states that the cost to the veteran for participating in the program can be no more than $1,000; plus the cost of testing, counseling, and treatment fees in whatever amount is necessary to cover the costs of any such testing, counseling, or treatment provided under the program.

It’s also important to note that the veterans court is required by law to take steps to ensure “maximum participation of eligible defendants.”  Not only are our Bell County courts not ensuring maximum participation, they are not even ensuring any participation.  The courts can only ensure participation, though, after the county commissioners court authorizes the program.  Something our county commissioners court has yet to do!

Tarrant County is already going to be the first county to implement this type of program.  That distinction should have been ours.  If we are going to make this county a “great place” for our veterans, we need to implement this program as soon as possible.

Of course, the obvious caveat is that this is just one randomly selected week out of 52 total weeks in a year that our hard-working prosecutors are slaving away for low pay and very little appreciation. 

However, just for fun, it is interesting.  The complete document can be viewed by clicking here.  The breakdown, though, is as follows.  For this one week:

Seven defendants a week for assistant district attorneys versus 52 a week for assistant county attorneys?  Can anyone explain why ADAs earn so much more right off the bat?  It must be exhausting handling those 1.4 different defendants every day!  Whew!

What else is interesting?  How about the number of cases each felony prosecutor has and the corresponding offense levels?  For example, Stephanie Newell has six State Jail felonies this week, four third degrees, one second degree, and one first degree felony.  Here is the breakdown for this week:

And this one, which shows the percentage of pro se defendants each county attorney has to deal with this week, along with the supporting numbers:

One last one is what types of cases each county prosecutor is assigned for this week. I grouped similar offenses together (for example, ABI-FM and ABI were combined as was DWI firsts and DWI seconds, etc.). The numbers represent what percentage of that prosecutors’ caseload is made up of those type of cases (for example, 38% of Anne Jackson’s cases this week are assault-type cases). Here are the rest of the numbers:

If you’d like to use the Microsoft Word versions, you’ll need a barcode font that the County uses for all of their forms.  It is sold by a company called Carolina Barcode and you can buy it at their website: www.carolinabarcode.com. 

You want “Code 39 Barcode Fonts.”  Specifically, the “Standard Code 39 Barcode Font” for either Windows or Mac (depending on what type of computer you have).  It will cost you $29 to immediately download all of their Code 39 fonts.

Or, you could just use the PDF versions, and you’ll save yourself the trouble of buying, installing and testing for the right font.

Here are the updated files:

Agreed Motion for Continuance.doc
Agreed Motion for Continuance.pdf

Attorney Fee Voucher (Bell County).doc
Attorney Fee Voucher (Bell County).pdf

There is a second line for additional cause numbers in case your client has more than two causes.

The line below where the State signs is to put the name of the prosecutor.

The check boxes can be clicked with a mouse or by pressing the SPACEBAR when the field is highlighted by the TAB key.

If you have any questions, please let me know.  Enjoy.

Therefore, if you are on any of the court-appointed attorney lists, you need to print out your CLE courses and give them to the Indigent Defense Coordinator before the end of the year.

To get your CLE hours, go here and login.  It asks for your bar card number and your password.  If you do not yet have a password, what’s wrong with you?  This is a great resource for attorneys!  Once you logon to your "MyBarPage", go to the section labeled "My MCLE Hours".  Click the red box that says, "View/Report Hours".  You will then be taken to a page that shows all of your CLE for the last seven or eight years. 

You may have to change the year if your birthday (CLE anniversary) occurred after the criminal law CLE you completed.

Print out this list showing your six or more hours of criminal law CLE, and give it to the IDC and you’ll be in compliance.  Failure to provide proof of your CLE will result in your being placed on hold until you comply.  You have been warned!

I recently joined a group of attorneys and court personnel on a tour of the new Bell County Jail.  We were allowed to see an almost 100% completed jail facility, and we spoke with jail administrators and staff about the new facility.  My verdict?  I like it.  It is very, very impressive.  It is an amazingly large facility, and it’s only going to get larger when they add the new section (as the need arises several years down the road).

And, yes, I know a lot of the local defense attorneys are upset because there are only a small number of meeting rooms where a defense attorney and his client can have a private, unmonitored conversation.  I also think that the video conferencing idea is a bad one (it allows cell mates to hear what an inmate is saying to his attorney, thus destroying the attorney-client privilege and guaranteeing that the conversation will be repeated by the cell-mate at your client’s trial). 

However, all-in-all, it’s a great jail and a wise use of Bell County tax dollars.  Every Bell County resident should be proud, and ashamed that we put off this inevitable construction for so long.

In the end, I am sure that we will find solutions for the minor problems which we anticipate, and the ones we have not yet realized. 

I, for one, would like to see a return to the days when attorneys could drop off correspondence for their client at the front of the jail.  In the olden days, we could write our client a letter and the jail staff would deliver it along with the regular mail.  I don’t know why they quit doing this, but they should start it again.  It allows for quicker communication, and it saves taxpayers the cost of the postage for court-appointed clients.  Even better, take inmate letters to their attorneys and put the letters in our boxes at the district court building.  That would be even more convenient and cost-effective as far as saving postage.  They are doing it already with "inmate service request" forms.  Would an envelope be any harder to put in a box?

About the only interesting thing that jumps out at me is the fact that Webb County takes just as long as Bell County does to resolve felony cases.  That’s interesting because Webb County has a pretty generous flat-fee rate for court appointed attorneys.  I would have thought that meant those court appointed attorneys would plead their cases out super fast (in order to maximize their profit on a flat fee case).  That doesn’t appear to be true, though.  I guess flat fees don’t promote a “plead ‘em quick” mentality.

Looking at other Texas counties that have about the same size populations as Bell County, we can see the following conviction rates for the last three years:

This chart contains data from October 1, 2005, to September 30, 2008.

Looking at the chart, you can quickly see that Bell County and Williamson County have the highest conviction rates. But what don’t you see? I don’t see a connection between court-appointed attorney rates and conviction rates. A recent post of mine shows the court appointed attorney hourly rates for these same counties. Looking at that chart and this one, I don’t see a connection.

For example, Jefferson County pays the lowest hourly fees, but they have the lowest conviction rate. Conversely, Webb County pays the highest hourly fees. and they have a slightly higher than average conviction rate.

Of course, Bell County has the highest conviction rate of Texas counties our size – and we are tied for second-to-lowest court appointed hourly rates. However, Galveston has the same hourly rate, and their conviction rate is as much lower than the average conviction rate as our county is higher (70% versus 95% , with an 82% state-wide average).

Bottom line, these numbers are interesting, but I’m not sure what conclusions we can draw from just looking at this limited data set. Looking at just these counties, over the last three years, there does not appear to be a correlation between conviction rates and court appointed attorney compensation rates.

Does anyone have any other ideas on what the cause of higher-than-average conviction rates?

To get the number of attorneys in each of the four closest counties on either side of Bell County (population wise), I looked at the most recent data available in the State Bar’s Attorney Population Density by Metropolitan Statistical Area Report: 2005-06. That report shows that each county has the following number of attorneys:

The ratio shows you how many attorneys there are for each person in that county.  For example, in Bell County, there is only one attorney for every 993 persons in the county.  That’s the most favorable attorney-to-potential client ratio around for counties our size. 

Also, keep in mind, that not every attorney practices criminal defense law.  One of the few things that you cannot get from the State Bar is a percentage of attorneys that practice criminal law.  The closest thing that I could find was that about 3% of all Texas attorneys belong to the criminal justice section of the State Bar.  I imagine that there are many attorneys who aren’t members of the criminal justice section since the criminal justice section of the State Bar is such a joke right now. 

So, is there a connection between attorney density and court appointed attorney fees?  It appears there might be.  Look at Jefferson County.  They pay the worst, a flat $50 per hour.  However, they also have the most attorneys per population ratio for counties our size.  There are just too many attorneys there to justify paying more than what the market likely will bear there.  Also, Webb County appears to pay the best, and they have an attorney to population ratio about the same as Bell County.  There are anomalies, though.  Williamson County for example pays horribly compared to how many attorneys live in that county.  I would suspect they get a lot of Travis County attorneys; plus, keep in mind that they are being sued by the Task Force on Indigent Defense right now anyway.  So, maybe it’s not the greatest idea to look at Williamson County to see what we should be doing!

By the way, the State Bar has determined that the average hourly rate for retained criminal defense attorneys in Texas is $207.  The median amount is $175 per hour.

One would think that since Bell County has the fewest attorneys per resident of all counties our size that we’d be paid the highest court appointed attorney fees.  Any idea why we aren’t?

The population data came from the U.S. Census Bureau. It represents the estimated population of the listed Texas counties as of July 1, 2007.

The rest of the data came from the Task Force on Indigent Defense Website. According to the fee schedules listed there, the following details what local court appointed attorneys are paid:

WILLIAMSON COUNTY:
Except for good cause shown, court-appointed attorney fees will be as follows:
Routine felony plea = $500
Routine felony plea (Spanish-speaking defendant) = $750
Jury trial (per day) = $1,000
Jury trial (per day) (Spanish-speaking defendant) = $1,250

NUECES COUNTY:
Guilty plea, plea of true, or dismissal by Defendant = $250-$450
Dismissal on State’s motion = $100 to $400
Nonjury trial = $60-$80 per hour in court / $30-$60 per hour out of court
Jury trial = $500-$750 per full day, $250-$375 per half day, in court; $30-$50 out of court

BRAZORIA COUNTY:
Guilty plea = $100 minimum
Everything else = $60 – $90 per hour

GALVESTON COUNTY:
$60 per hour

LUBBOCK COUNTY:
$75 per hour; with minimum of $300 per plea

JEFFERSON COUNTY:
Public defenders maxed at $8333 per month (appointed on a monthly basis)
Rotation attorneys paid $500 per half-day in trial or contested hearings
$1,000 per plea/dismissal of single case
$1,200 per plea/dismissal of multiple cases for same defendant

WEBB COUNTY:
$85 per hour on SJF/3rd in trial / $75 per hour hearings / $50 per hour out of court
$100 per hour on 2nd in trial / $85 per hour hearings / $60 per hour out of court
$125 per hour on 1st in trial / $100 per hour hearings / $75 per hour out of court
Flat fee for plea: $500 SJF/3rd; $750 2nd; $1,000 1st

McLENNAN COUNTY:
$40-100 per hour in court; $35-$75 per hour out of court
Flat fee for plea: $400 SJF/3rd; $500 2nd; $750 1st

Not once in the article, though, did it mention that Judge Duffield inquired as to an accused’s financial situation and whether or not that defendant could make any particular bail amount. No, on the contrary, he apparently continues to set bail amounts according to the usual preset bail schedule without any regard to his legal duty to see that a bail is not oppressively high and without any regard to the ability of the accused to make bail.

County Commission Richard Cortese said the public does not care about bail amounts. He claims that “defense attorneys and family members of the person arrested are the people who usually get upset and complain about high bail amounts.” He then continues by stating that the victims of crime generally believe bail amounts are too low. “They want the person who broke into their house to stay behind bars,” he said. Wow! An elected official that has never heard of the presumption of innocence. Innocent until proven guilty? Not in Bell County! Are there any constitutional rights that can survive in Bell County?

Setting bail in Bell County is a precise procedure, the only problem is that it is precisely wrong.

That is absolute, 100%, correct.  However, the very next paragraph goes on to say “Attorney John Galligan said it is common for bail hearings to reduce bail amounts by 80 to 90 percent.”  That I don’t know about.

Sure, the typical felony defendant’s bail gets reduced from an ungodly number down to $1,000 once they plead guilty.  But, that’s usually the only way to get such a huge reduction.  Otherwise, the judges usually reduce the bail from an ungodly amount down to just an unholy amount.  What good does that do?

Here’s the problem, though: a good number of defendants post bond before they get a bail reduction.  Then, they are paying their bond companies huge sums of money to get out of jail.  That typically means that there is no money left to hire a criminal defense attorney.  So, since they are charged with felonies, what happens?  They get a court-appointed lawyer.  Who pays for that?  We, the taxpayers. 

So, by setting initial bail amounts so high, a defendant has to pay what little money they have saved up over time, or what little money their families can scrape together, to get that person out of the jail.

The situation is better if the defendant hires a criminal defense lawyer first, because then the lawyer can go to the judge assigned to the case and get the bail lowered to a more reasonable amount.  That only happens, though, when the defendant hires the lawyer first.  Meanwhile, though, that person sits in jail and waits until the defense attorney can go to a judge and get a lowered bail amount (unless they have so much money that they can afford to hire a lawyer and hire a bondsman — and not very many people do).

So, why are we forcing people to stay in jail longer than necessary with these artificially high bail bonds?  Why not just set a reasonable bail amount to begin with and save everyone (including the taxpayers) a lot of money?  Well, according to the article, Judge Ted Duffield was at a conference and unavailable for comment.  Where was “Million Dollar” Judge Ivey for comment?

‘It’s political silly season, and this fits’
By Justin Cox
Killeen Daily Herald

Convicted Killeen man’s victim dies; murder charge possible
Posted on: Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 12:00 AM
By Justin Cox
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=21185

http://www.temple-telegram.com/story/2007/09/26/43826

Man guilty of nursing home assault
Posted on: Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 12:00 AM
By Justin Cox
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=19034