Ogg urges police chiefs to oppose bail deal
District attorney summons law enforcement to pack court, fight historic reform settlement
District Attorney Kim Ogg is rallying police officers across Harris County to show up in federal court en masse to oppose a landmark bail reform agreement at a final hearing set for this month.
She emailed about 100 police chiefs to invite them to attend an Oct. 28 court proceeding before Chief U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal to lend support on an issue she says “endangers the public.”
In addition to recruiting top brass to the hearing, Ogg also requested that her lieutenants be present to support her concerns about portions of the settlement that allowed most defendants arrested on minor offenses to await trial at home without posting up-front cash bail, according to her spokesman, Dane Schiller.
Ogg expressed misgivings about the proposed consent decree approved last summer by Commissioners Court after months of intensive meetings between county leaders, judges and the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the 2016 class action.
Ogg, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, is among a number of parties, including many from the bail bond industry, who submitted concerns about the settlement in court during the summer.
“The district attorney has always supported bail reform, so that nobody is held just because they are poor, but she also says public safety should always be considered,” Schiller said.
Public safety is also a concern raised by two Republican county commissioners who opposed the settlement.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, a former police officer, said he’s concerned that “people have gone out and done bad things when they’re out on bond”
and he thinks Ogg is acknowledging that this proposed settlement is not good.
“This case is like a model case and the pendulum is swinging way too far,” he said. “It leaves the public in a position to become victims.”
Fellow Commissioner Rodney Ellis, of Precinct 1, defended the settlement, which is rooted in the federal judge’s earlier ruling that the old bail system discriminated against poor defendants. Ellis said the settlement came about due to the “hard work and careful negotiation by our elected judges and other county leaders committed to meaningful reform.”
“The last ditch efforts to use unfounded scare tactics and bailprofiteer
talking points to derail a settlement that creates a better, safer system for everyone in defense of an unjust system that profited off the mass incarceration of poor people are a disappointing use of time, energy and taxpayer dollars,” he said.
The county public defender, who has been friends with Ogg since law school, said he suspects Ogg’s approach will be perceived as overkill by Rosenthal, the region’s highest ranking lifetime appointee to the federal bench.
“A courtroom full of police officers is not going to intimidate her,” said Harris County Public Defender Alex Bunin. “She might be insulted that they would do that to her.”
“It’s over the top, and this kind of bravado backfires every time,” Bunin added. He said the majority of the concerns Ogg raised
were resolved by a judicial rule passed in January.
Ogg, a Democrat who campaigned on criminal justice reform, faces a progressive challenger in an upcoming primary as well as a Republican, who sides with more conservative voices on the issue of pretrial detention. Ogg wrote in the email that she supports bail reform but has serious concerns with the plan that is in the final stages court approval before the consent decree goes into effect.
“The proposed settlement of Harris County’s bail reform lawsuit accommodates and elevates the interests of arrested defendants without adequate protections for victims, witnesses or the public in general,” the email says.
The DA goes on to say that her primary concerns with the deal are new accommodations for defendants
who miss or are late for court dates that she views as inconvenient and costly for witnesses and law enforcement officials. She also takes issue with bond being granted to people accused of domestic violence and drunken driving.
Such people, she states, “should be jailed to protect victims, witnesses and prevent unnecessary multiple encounters with police officers on the streets.”
Court at Law Judge Franklin Bynum, who hears misdemeanor cases for the county, said Ogg appears to have ignored a learning opportunity Rosenthal offered the last time Ogg raised these issues.
“Kim Ogg opposed bail reform in writing and was told that she did not understand the law by the federal judge,” Bynum said. “Rather than educating herself, Ogg has chosen, like Donald Trump, to indulge in her worst authoritarian impulses. History won’t be kind to her, nor will the present.”
In a similar vein, Presiding Court at Law Judge Darrell Jordan said he was saddened to see Beltway-type politics surfacing in Harris County.
“Instead of resorting to fearmongering and half-truths, the better course of action would be to meet with us and offer solutions,” Jordan said. “Public safety is more important than campaigning for elections.”
Advocates of the seven-year consent decree have organized a press briefing Tuesday to highlight key components of the agreement.