Harris County judges told hearing magistrates to deny no-cost bail

State District Judge Michael McSpadden in 2016. State District Judge Michael McSpadden in 2016. Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Harris County judges told hearing magistrates to deny no-cost bail 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

For more than a decade, most of Harris County's felony court judges directed magistrates to deny no-cash bail to all newly arrested defendants, in apparent violation of state judicial conduct rules, according to internal documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

The documents include charts with explicit court-by-court instructions from 31 district judges to reject all requests for no-cash bonds when defendants made initial appearances in court.

Records and testimony show that misdemeanor judges also routinely told magistrates for years to decline personal bonds, which allow a person to gain pre-trial release from jail without posting cash bail.

The previously undisclosed bail and bond instructions, which surfaced during disciplinary hearings against three Harris County magistrates, appear to corroborate longstanding complaints from criminal justice activists that the county's bail system deprived defendants of a fair chance at pre-trial liberty.

RELATED: Harris County magistrates sanctioned for not considering personal bonds



County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a former state senator who authored the law requiring prompt hearings and appointed lawyers for indigent defendants, said the newfound evidence illuminates a problem that has festered for years.

"For too long, Harris County has had two systems of justice - one for those who have money and another, more punitive system for those without money," he said. "Harris County should not continue to spend the taxpayers' money defending this unconstitutional and immoral system."

Harris County's bail system was upended by a federal court order last year requiring no-cash bail for qualified misdemeanor defendants who couldn't afford to get out of jail. The county strongly denied in federal court that magistrates had been ordered to forgo personal bonds, but the new evidence suggests otherwise.

More Information Decades of denial A Houston Chronicle review of more than 600 pages of internal documents related to Harris County's bail bond practices found at least 31 current and former judges in felony and misdemeanor courts who instructed magistrates not to grant no-cash personal recognizance bonds. The documents include memos dating back more than 20 years and charts from 2006 to early 2017 with court-by-court instructions. By early 2017, the judges had uniformly rescinded the policies. According to the documents, the following judges issued those instructions at some point during their tenure. State District Court (felonies) Devon Anderson, Republican, 177th Criminal Court, 2005-2008, who later became district attorney after her husband died in the office. Instructed magistrates to deny personal bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Mike Anderson, Republican, 262nd Criminal Court, 1999-2010, and later district attorney, who died in office. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 through 2009. No chart exists for 2010. Jeannine Barr, Republican, 182nd Criminal Court since 1995. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds between 2006 and 2017. Denise Bradley, Republican, 262nd Criminal Court since 2011. No charts exist for 2011, but she instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds on charts from 2012 to 2017. Marc Brown, Republican, 180th Criminal Court, 2010-2013. No charts exist for 2010, 2011 or 2013, but he instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds on a 2012 chart. Susan Brown, Republican, 185th Criminal Court since 1999. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds according to charts from 2006 to 2012. No chart exists for 2013. Since 2014, she has given magistrates latitude to decide on PR bonds. Katherine Cabaniss, Republican, 248th Criminal Court since 2013. No chart exists for 2013. She instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2014 until 2017. Joan Campbell, Republican, 248th Criminal Court, 1999-2012. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 until 2012. Marc C. Carter, Republican, 228th Criminal Court since 2003. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 until 2014. No chart exists for 2015, but in 2016 and 2017 he began giving magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Caprice Cosper, Republican, 339th Criminal Court, 1993-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Denise Collins, Republican, 208th Criminal Court since 1992. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2012. No chart exists for 2013. In 2014, she began giving magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Mark Kent Ellis, Republican, 351st Criminal Court, 1997-2016. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2016. Catherine Evans, Republican, 180th Criminal Court since 2013. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds 2014 to 2017. George Godwin, Republican, 174th Criminal Court, from 1989-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. William T. Harmon, Republican, 178th Criminal Court, 1985-2006. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006. Since 2007, he has been a Harris County misdemeanor judge. Belinda Hill, Republican, 230th Criminal Court, 1997-2012. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2012. Joan Huffman, Republican, 183rd Criminal Court, 1999-2005 and a state senator since 2008. Huffman's tenure as a judge predates the charts, but a memo from the magistrates' office dated Jan. 4, 1999 indicates she told magistrates not to grant PR bonds or lower bond rates. Hazel B. Jones, Democrat, 338th Criminal Court, 2009-2012 and in the 174th since 2017. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2009 and 2012. No charts exist for 2010 or 2011. She gave magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds when she resumed office in 2017. Jan Krocker, Republican, 184th Criminal Court since 1995. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006. Since 2007 she has given magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Renee Magee, Republican, 337th Criminal Court, 2013-2016. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2014 but was gave latitude to grant them in 2016. No charts exist for 2013 or 2015. Michael McSpadden, Republican, 209th Criminal Court since 1982. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2017. Ryan Patrick, Republican, 177th Criminal Court, 2012-2016 who began serving as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas in 2018. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2012 and 2014. He gave them latitude to grant PR bonds in 2016. No charts exist for 2013 or 2015. George Powell, Democrat, 351st Criminal Court since 2017. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in early 2017. Brian Rains, Republican, 176th Criminal Court, 1988-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Herb Ritchie, Democrat, 337th Criminal Court, 2009-2012 and began a new term in 2017. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2009 to 2012, but granted latitude on PR bonds when he returned to the bench in 2016. Debbie Mantooth Stricklin, Republican, 180th Criminal Court, 1995-2010. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2009. No chart exists for 2010. Don Stricklin, Republican, 337th Criminal Court, 1999-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Brock Thomas, Republican, 338th Criminal Court, 2002-2008 and 2013-2016. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006, 2007 and 2014. No charts exist for 2013 and 2015. In 2016, he gave magistrates latitude to grant PR bonds. Vanessa Velasquez, Republican, 183rd Criminal Court since 2005. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. She began giving latitude to grant PR bonds in 2009. Jim Wallace, Republican, 263rd Criminal Court since 1995. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds from 2006 to 2017. Michael J. Wilkinson, Republican, 179th Criminal Court, 1989-2008. Instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds in 2006 and 2007. No chart exists for 2008. Harris County Court at Law (misdemeanors) Diane Bull, Republican, has served in Court 11 since 1995. A 1995 memo to magistrates indicated she instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds but wanted them referred to her court. She told the Chronicle she expected magistrates to send them over if she was on the bench or rule on them if defendants requested them in the evenings or on weekends. Mike Fields, Republican, has served in Court 14 since 1999. From 2012 to 2013 he instructed magistrates to deny PR bonds. Before and after that time, he granted them latitude to rule on bonds.

RULING: Harris County bail system unconstitutional, federal judge rules

Among those listed in the documents with no-bond policies are former judges Ryan Patrick, now the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas; former Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson, now deceased, and his wife, Devon, who succeeded him in office after his death; and state Sen. Joan Huffman.

State District Judge Michael McSpadden, a long-serving jurist in Harris County, said he also had a no-bond policy for magistrates for at least a dozen years because he didn't trust the lower-level jurists not to make errors.

"Almost everybody we see here has been tainted in some way before we see them," he said. "They're not good risks."

The judge said he was concerned defendants would be released on bond only to be arrested on another offense. Many had casual attitudes about showing up for court, he said.

"The young black men - and it's primarily young black men rather than young black women - charged with felony offenses, they're not getting good advice from their parents," he said. "Who do they get advice from? Rag-tag organizations like Black Lives Matter, which tell you, 'Resist police,' which is the worst thing in the world you could tell a young black man ... They teach contempt for the police, for the whole justice system."

In all, local judges granted personal, no-cash bonds to about 6,900 defendants of the more than 80,000 arrested in 2016. As of Thursday, 75 percent of the jail's more than 8,700 inmates were awaiting trial, according to the sheriff's office.

The high numbers remained even after restrictions on bonds were formally rescinded in Harris County in 2016 for misdemeanors and in 2017 for felonies after the indigent defendants filed the lawsuit. A federal appeals court recently upheld the bulk of the ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal but sent back for reconsideration some procedural matters, including whether bail should be decided within 24 hours.

RULING: Appeals court OKs most of federal ruling that Harris County's bail practices unconstitutional

'Never, never, ever'

The federal lawsuit cast a bright light on the bail hearing process, in which lower-level judges serve as the first stop for people arrested on a range of charges, from misdemeanors to serious felonies.

The hearings are run 24 hours a day, including holidays and weekends, by 10 full time magistrates and five temporary magistrates, hired by the judges.

The documents reviewed by the Chronicle indicate internal prohibitions on no-cash releases were in place for at least 12 years, as hundreds of thousands of defendants passed through court.

The paperwork also exposes a pattern of micro-management by the higher-tier elected judges of the magistrates, whose work is limited in scope but essential to determining the liberty of people presumed innocent in the eyes of the law.

The instructions on bail came to light during disciplinary proceedings against three Harris County magistrates before the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, filed complaints against magistrates Eric Hagstette, Jill Wallace and Joseph Licata III after he saw videos of bail hearings capturing brusque treatment and perfunctory exchanges with defendants, with no mention of the possibility of personal recognizance, or PR, bonds.

RELATED: Rosenthal rules federal courts in Houston region with firm hand



Whitmire claimed the hearing officers had been unprofessional and violated their legal duties.

The magistrates did not comment on the hearings, but audio recordings obtained by the Chronicle show they told the commission they were pressured to follow the elected judges' orders for years. They submitted into evidence hundreds of pages of documents going back more than two decades.

Among the documents was an undated memo to magistrates from the late James V. Garrett Jr., chief hearing officer at the county court of law, who handled hearings from 1993 until his retirement in 2005. Tucked into a list of 10 "Things you need to know," Garrett wrote, "You may never, never, ever give a PR bond to a defendant in the district courts. This could probably get you fired. So don't."

Magistrates could not carry out rulings as they saw fit, Wallace said in written remarks submitted in her defense. She told the commission that hearing officers "serve many masters" and "exercise the discretion they can within the bounds set," according to the recordings.

She said misdemeanor judges also gave informal instructions about bond.

Hagstette testified at his disciplinary hearing that he felt pressured to comply with the elected judges' wishes.

"It was just sort of the lore in the office - of hearing officers getting called on the carpet for various things," he said.

Hagstette said he still felt scrutinized in December 2017, 10 months after the judges retracted their instructions about bond.

"We still get comments like, 'Why would you approve a personal bond on this sort of thing?'" he said.

In January, the commission sanctioned the three magistrates for violating the law, failing to maintain professional competence and breaching their duty not to be "swayed by partisan interests, public clamor or fear of criticism." The commission also cited Rosenthal's conclusion that the magistrates had violated the county's 30-year-old federal court settlement in Roberson v. Richardson, which guaranteed defendants a meaningful review of alternatives to pre-set bail amounts.

RELATED: Harris County's $5.2 million bail case may be headed toward settlement

Robert Soard, first assistant at the Harris County Attorney's Office, said even with the restrictions, bail decisions were made in a timely fashion and that county judges never asked the magistrates to violate the law or the Roberson order.

"There was never a widespread practice," Soard said.

'Not a sinister thing'

The hearing officers filed a rare appeal of the sanctions to the Texas Supreme Court, asking that their formal admonitions be revoked.

In the meantime, the commission's proceedings could have further repercussions for Harris County judges, according to one expert.

The complaint against the magistrates "very likely" triggered an investigation by the commission into potential ethics violations by a broad swath of the county's current and former judges, said Lillian B. Hardwick, an Austin-based attorney, who coauthored a book on judicial ethics under Texas law.

Eric L. Vinson, executive director of the state judicial commission, said he could not comment on whether any such investigation is underway.

RELATED: Federal judge orders Harris County judges to produce any evidence missing in bail case

Several elected judges discussed their longstanding bail practices with the Chronicle, saying for years they instructed magistrates not to grant personal bonds. Each offered what they said was a clear rationale for doing so.

State District Judge Marc C. Carter, on the bench since 2003, said he - like McSpadden - did not want to leave those decisions to the magistrates, although documents show he had amended his policy by 2016.

"I was not comfortable giving magistrates the authority to grant PR bonds in felony cases, because I was ultimately responsible for ensuring the public's safety regarding defendants released on bond from my court," he said. "I always believed that should be my burden to carry, and not the magistrate's."

Criminal Court at Law Judge Mike Fields, who has presided over misdemeanors for nearly 20 years, said he was one of those who imposed limits on magistrates, saying he found it upsetting that they didn't always set restrictions before letting defendants go.

RELATED: Veteran criminal judge withdraws from appeal of federal bail ruling



"I do not believe I was alone," Fields said. "There are some things that judges want to do themselves and (PR bond) was one of the things I wanted to do myself."

He has since changed his policy.

"Wanting to review these things is not a sinister thing," he said. "I'm the judge. I want to make the decision - it's what we get paid to do."

MORE: Lawyers in Harris County bail case claim evidence may have been withheld

In 1995, in her first months overseeing misdemeanor cases, Judge Diane Bull also notified the magistrates that she wanted to set bail during work hours, but left magistrates to make the decisions when she was not on the bench.

"I did not give them any instructions on how to carry out any of their duties, including the granting of PR bonds," Bull said.

Six other current judges were cited in the documents, but they declined to comment. Several former judges also declined to discuss their policies.

Acting in good faith

Experts in judicial ethics said the higher-ranking judges were probably acting in good faith.

"I'm not sure the judges intended to do anything inappropriate in giving those instructions," said Sandra Guerra Thompson, director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center. "I think this is part of the history - misunderstanding that magistrates are not the clerks of the judges. They are themselves hired to be independent judges."

As the lower-level judicial officer, a magistrate is perpetually trying to gauge what the assigned judge on a case would want, said Pamela R. Metzger, a professor of criminal law and ethics and director of the Deason Criminal Justice Reform Center at Southern Methodist University.

"It's like a dog that's been beaten one too many times," Metzger said. "They've been told, 'If you do it this way, I'm just going to undo it. Do not waste your time.' It gets to the point where even the most diligent public servant won't attempt to exercise discretion because the outcome will not be any different."

Lise Olsen contributed to this report.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.