Nearly 30,000 defendants were granted PR bonds since 2022, many with extensive criminal records
Breaking Bond: 28,000 defendants with extensive criminal history receive PR bond since 2022
We've discovered since 2022 almost 30,000 defendants, some with an extensive criminal history, have received a PR bond.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Personal recognizance bonds are meant for first-time offenders and low-level misdemeanors. But we've found career criminals, and even a registered sex offender, being granted numerous PR bonds.
Tens of thousands of defendants given PR bonds since 2022, despite extensive crimal history
62-year-old Nathaniel Cornell Barnes' lengthy criminal history dates to 1989. But that didn't stop a magistrate from granting him five personal recognizance bonds.
"You've already been given five PR bonds. Guess what? He didn't show up for court. Now, he's a wanted fugitive. This is absurd," said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers.
In just the month of March, Mario Garza, President of Professional Bondsmen of Harris County Association, says magistrates granted more than 1,500 defendants PR bonds.
"Some of them with extensive records that you would think by now, they wouldn't qualify, but they are," Garza said.
Dig deeper:
Since 2022, magistrates have given PR bonds to more than 28,000 defendants charged with felonies.
"What's even more disturbing was a list I got showing some of them have six PR bonds," said Kahan.
Like 61-year-old Troy Carter. He's been in and out of prison since 1985. Yet he's now free from jail on his sixth felony PR bond.
His lengthy criminal history for being a registered sex offender didn't stop 57-year-old Lewis Abney from getting six PR bonds.
"He was given two more PR bonds. So he's right back out and this was the actual district court judge that gave him the PR bond, not the magistrate, which is even more disturbing," Kahan said.
The judge who granted Abney PR bonds is 232nd Judge Josh Hill.
What's next:
A bill the governor is expected to sign into law will stop magistrates from granting PR bonds. That can only be done by elected judges.
The Source: FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with Andy Kahan from Houston Crime Stoppers and Mario Garza, President of Professional Bondsmen of Harris County Association.