After $500 bond, man held without bail
A 31-year-old man who received a $500 bond after being arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault — only to be arrested again weeks later — was ordered held without bail earlier this week.
Timothy Singleton’s case drew widespread attention after prosecutors protested his first bond to the state’s highest criminal court. Justices on the Court of Criminal Appeals took the almost-unheard-of action of issuing a new warrant for his arrest with a bond set at $100,000.
Singleton’s attorneys had argued that the request to the appeals court violated Singleton’s constitutional rights and relied on inapplicable statutes to try to circumvent precedent and established state law.
The action this week to hold him without bond came not from the appeals court, but in the court originally assigned to the case.
District Judge Chris Morton — the judge who previously ordered the release on a $500 bond, said Singleton violated the conditions of his pretrial release after he picked up the burglary charge weeks later. That charge stemmed from an incident where Singleton’s ex-girlfriend said he assaulted her and stole her phone, court records show.
Besides ordering Singleton held on no bail for violating his pretrial release conditions, Morton set the defendant’s bond in the subsequent burglary case at $20,000. In late April, Singleton also was charged with evading arrest. In an email, public defender Betsy Stukes said Morton’s decision means her client will remain incarcerated in Harris County Jail for the duration of his case, potentially exposing him to COVID-19.
“The District Attorney’s Office seems to have chosen Mr. Singleton out of a list of similarly situated defendants for a reason unknown to me,” she said, “and the spotlight that they have placed on his case has had a negative impact on the fairness of the pro
cess.”
Joshua Reiss, the prosecutor who asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to issue a higher bond, said he requested that action because Singleton’s case “was particularly egregious because of his history of violence, a bond that was 99 percent lower than the bond schedule, and the hearing officer’s extra-judicial animosity-laden comments.”
Brent Mayr, who represented Singleton before the appeals court, also criticized the decision, saying his client has been denied bond in a case where evidence shows his alleged victim never saw a gun.
Morton’s decision sidestepped that issue, he said.
“We respectfully disagree with the judge’s ruling,” he said. “We are evaluating our options right now in terms what can do to challenge the ruling.”
Reiss, however, hailed the recent court action, saying it vindicated his concerns about the defendant.
“The Timothy Singleton case is about public safety and the (Kim) Ogg administration’s determination to do what is legally appropriate to protect the community,” he said.