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!

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?

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?

Well, a little investigation revealed some interesting information. Here is a breakdown of just who is in the BCJ right now:

Keep in mind that the BCJ only has 708 beds. I guess 70 inmates are sharing beds? However it works out over there, it seems like there are still an awful large number of people in the BCJ with excessive bail amounts. I don’t know, because each case is unique and I have not studied each and every case (obviously). I do wonder, though, if anyone else has.

For example, looking at State Jail felony offense possession under a gram cases, there are 35 inmates in the BCJ right now with that offense being the most serious thing they are charged with. I don’t know what percentage of those have no prior felony convictions, but I imagine a good number of them are first timers. And, of course, those with no prior felonies are automatically entitled to probation on their first State Jail felony possession case. Automatic probation. And yet, a good number of inmates are sitting in jail, an average of 77 days so far, most with bail amounts of $25,000! $25,000 and they are guaranteed probation if it’s a first felony offense? What is the rationale behind this?

By the way, for all of you good criminal defense lawyers out there, notice the median bond amounts. Now when someone asks you what their bond is likely to be set at, you can say with some confidence that the normal Bell County bail for a:

1st Degree Felony = $150,000
2nd Degree Felony = $75,000
3rd Degree Felony = $75,000
State Jail Felony = $25,000
Felony probation revocation = $50,000
Class A Misdemeanor = $5,000
Class B Misdemeanor = $2,500
Misdemeanor probation revocation = $5,000

Of course, looking at these numbers, something appears quite curious. Notice the neat stacking of numbers. What a coincidence that a median Class A bail amount just happens to be twice that of a median Class B bail amount. There appears to be a slight problem with the pattern though. Because a State Jail Felony is $25,000. Doubling that should make a Third Degree Felony $50,000 (but the median jumps up to $75,000). The Second Degree Felony is at $75,000, which oddly enough is half of a First Degree Felony, at $150,000.

Does this neat pattern indicate that Bell County bail amounts are being set according to some predetermined value ladder? Surely the local magistrates are obeying their sworn duties to apply and uphold the law and are individually setting each of these amounts, right? Well, see this post if there is any doubt

[The data used in this analysis is available on my website as an Excel file, by clicking here. Keep in mind, though, that this spreadsheet only shows one offense for each inmate, the offense with the highest bond amount. The most current list is available on the Sheriff’s website: Bell County Active Inmate List.]

Thompson’s bail was set at one million dollars due to “peripheral issues,” according to the article. Judge G. W. Ivey apparently recommended a million dollar bail at the request of a detective with the Belton Police Department “who believed Thompson was not cooperating with the investigation.”

Judge Ted Duffield, who officially set the bail, said that he thought that the amount “seemed high for a criminal mischief charge” and briefly considered reducing the million dollar bail when Thompson appeared before him. Duffield did not reduce the bail, though, but instead deferred to the bail amount recommended by Judge Ivey.

Further, the article reported, the Belton Police Department consulted with the Bell County District Attorney’s office, who agreed with a “high bail amount” so as to “send a clear message to the young people involved with the case that it was a serious felony.”

Thus, it appears that Bell County officials involved believed that Thompson should be held in the overcrowded Bell County Jail because he refused to cooperate with the police and because the prosecutors wanted to send a clear message to other young people about the seriousness of the alleged offense. These factors must be based upon “Bell County law,” though.

The problem with Bell County law is that it conflicts squarely with Texas and federal laws. Texas law sets out the rules to follow when a court official sets the amount of bail in a criminal case. The law states that: 1) the bail should be high enough to reasonably assure that the person will show up for court, 2) the bail should not be oppressively high, 3) the nature of the offense and the circumstances under which it was committed are to be considered, 4) the ability of the accused to make bail must be considered, and 5) the future safety of a victim of the offense and the community must be considered, as well. This law is found in Article 17.15 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

What is missing from the five factors? Certainly cooperating with the police isn’t there. Since when have we as a society ever required anyone arrested with a crime to cooperate with government agents, anyway? Has the Belton Police Department ever heard of the United States and Texas Constitutions? Perhaps the right to remain silent doesn’t apply in Bell County. What about sending clear messages to young people? That’s not one of the five factors, either.

Looking at what the law does allow, though, we can see what a poor job our elected local officials did in following Texas law: First, a million dollar bail would almost certainly guarantee any 17-year-old kid would show up for court. However, wouldn’t a $20,000 bail do the same thing? Apparently the 426th District Court thought so, at least according to the article, because that was the amount of bail once Thompson had the benefit of a criminal defense attorney to assert his rights. Secondly, does anyone think that a million dollar bail would not almost always be oppressive to a 17-year-old, or just about anyone else for that matter? Thirdly, the nature of the offense is that a seven-year-old vehicle was apparently stolen and driven into a lake after an unsupervised teen party. While the owner of the vehicle did not deserve to have his car stolen, should he really be surprised something bad happened after leaving his teenager home alone over the weekend? Fourthly, I wonder what inquiry Judges Ivey and Duffield made into Thompson’s ability to come up with a million dollars? Maybe Thompson had saved up a million dollars working a part-time fast-food job when not attending high school. Who knows? Finally, the future safety of a victim of the offense and the community. Can anyone explain how the safety of the community or the safety of the M.I.A. father would be at risk if Thompson had been released under a reasonable bail?

Perhaps Thompson is not alone, though. Perhaps Bell County is overrun with crime and criminals and we are all at danger except for the heroic efforts of a few unappreciated and little understood court officials. Looking at the Bell County Jail population on Sunday, September 21, 2008, one could see that there were nine inmates with million dollar or higher bails set. Of course, all but two of those were in jail at the time for murder. With one of the remaining two charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and the other one charged with having escaped from a jail previously. Naturally, one can see how a 17-year-old alleged car thief deserves the same bail as a bunch of murderers. Although, not every alleged murderer has a million dollar bail. In fact, on Sunday, a couple of alleged murderers had bail amounts set at just $100,000.

Perhaps, then, it is the nature of Thompson’s alleged crime that makes it especially heinous. Maybe driving a 2001 Chevy Camaro Z-28 into a lake just can not be tolerated in Bell County. That is why the four individuals sitting in the Bell County jail on Sunday morning who were charged in other incidents of felony criminal mischief should be thankful that their bail amounts were set at $10,000; $15,000;$20,000 and $50,000 each. One can only assume that those four individuals, however, must be cooperating fully with the police, and the young people of Bell County must have already received clear messages concerning those cases.

For comparison purposes, though, there were eight persons in the Bell County Jail on this past Sunday who were each charged with aggravated sexual assault on children. Surely that is also a serious crime where the prosecutors would want to send clear messages by requesting high bail amounts, right? And certainly in that type of case we would want a high bail set unless those accused of having engaged in sexual contact with children came forward and were totally cooperative with the compassionate and understanding police forces of our county, right? Well, apparently not, because only one of the eight even has a half a million dollar bail, and the rest have an average bail of around $200,000 (with one set at only $75,000).

Do not mistake the point I am trying to make, though. I am not making a blanket statement that Bell County bail amounts are not high enough in sexual assault cases, or murder cases, or any particular case. Maybe bail amounts are too high or too low, and maybe they aren’t. I don’t know. It is certainly possible that the magistrates in other cases followed Texas law, and that court officials determined that $75,000 was enough money to ensure that that the particular alleged child molester in that case would show up for court and not endanger anyone’s safety when released. The point I am trying to make, though, is that it is a shame that John Thompson didn’t receive the same consideration in the setting of his bail amount as others apparently have.

Both The United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution provide every citizen with the right to a reasonable bail. Both Constitutions also guarantee all citizens the right to equal protection of the law. FBI Director Robert Mueller has said that “When just one of us loses just one of our rights, then the freedoms of all of us are diminished.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the lead agency for investigating violations of federal civil rights laws. The Texas Rangers investigate violations of Texas law when local officials are unwilling or unable to do so. Maybe it’s time for one of those agencies to start asking Bell County officials, “Setting bail: Why do the amounts vary so much”?