The article which appeared in the Temple paper yesterday regarding 17-year-old John Orland Thompson, Jr., (“Setting bail: Why amounts vary so much” by Paul A. Romer, September 20, 2008) illustrates that there are fundamental problems in Bell County concerning the setting of bail in criminal cases. Is it any wonder that the Bell County Jail is overcrowded when the local officials handling the setting of bail amounts fail to follow the law?
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”?
Bell County, Bell County Jail, News | jeffparker | 
October 5, 2008 9:21 am | 
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