Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / GET OUT OF JAIL FREE! Dangerous new laws put perps out on the streets!
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- 0:33Speaker 1: Go to truth finder dot com, slash Nancy and enter
- 0:37Speaker 1: any name to get started. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
- 0:47Speaker 1: on Serious x M Triumph Channel one thirty two. How
- 0:56Speaker 1: many stories have you read about where there was a
- 1:00Speaker 1: violent crime, a child less station, a rape, a murder,
- 1:04Speaker 1: or worse if you can imagine it, only to discover
- 1:08Speaker 1: the perpetrator was out on bond at the time of
- 1:13Speaker 1: the offense. The revolving door in our justice system resulting
- 1:19Speaker 1: in more and more violent crimes on innocent victims. I
- 1:24Speaker 1: mean it, See Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you
- 1:26Speaker 1: for being with us. An all star lineup with me
- 1:30Speaker 1: now to address the most recent string of attacks by
- 1:33Speaker 1: people out on bond while at this moment, so called
- 1:39Speaker 1: bail bond reform is sweeping the country, which allows people
- 1:44Speaker 1: who commit a crime to walk free with nothing more
- 1:47Speaker 1: than a piece of paper in their hand, no accountability
- 1:52Speaker 1: as more victims are added to the lists of statistics.
- 1:57Speaker 1: With me Star of Reality to v the President of
- 2:01Speaker 1: Professional Bill Agents of the US, Beth Chapman. Also with me,
- 2:06Speaker 1: defense lawyer Jason Oceans practicing in multiple jurisdictions, juvenile judge,
- 2:11Speaker 1: founder of child crime watch dot Com, Ashley Willcot Crime
- 2:16Speaker 1: Stories investigative reporter Jennifer Sakowski, and with me bail bondsman
- 2:22Speaker 1: Scott Hall. Everyone welcome. First of all, to you, Jennifer,
- 2:27Speaker 1: I want to talk about first Ed French. I'm sure
- 2:31Speaker 1: you know who I'm talking about. Why does he factor
- 2:36Speaker 1: into this scenario? So this story starts with nineteen year
- 2:41Speaker 1: old La Monte Mims and twenty year old Fantacy Decorps
- 2:46Speaker 1: in San Francisco. LaMonte Mims he had been caught breaking
- 2:50Speaker 1: into cars in Twin Peaks in November of two thousand sixteen.
- 2:55Speaker 1: He served a mere three months in jail. Then on
- 2:59Speaker 1: July for Earth he was busted yet again, this time
- 3:03Speaker 1: for gun possession and parole violations, not small charges. Only
- 3:10Speaker 1: seven days later, on July eleven, he was let out
- 3:14Speaker 1: on an a thirtive case management a pre trial program
- 3:18Speaker 1: requiring chickens. They actually trusted this man to do checkens.
- 3:24Speaker 1: The judge in that case was following the public safety
- 3:27Speaker 1: Assessment which is also called the p p s A score.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Then only five days later after that Nancy are very
- 3:37Speaker 1: talented by all accounts, successful and good hearted man a French.
- 3:43Speaker 1: He was an avid photographer in San Francisco. He was
- 3:48Speaker 1: presumed to have been sitting against a wall taking beautiful
- 3:51Speaker 1: shots down Market Street with you're talking about a world
- 3:56Speaker 1: renowned photographer, Ed France. She was photographing a sunrise at
- 4:00Speaker 1: Twin Peaks and this man and woman sneak up on
- 4:07Speaker 1: him and murder him on the spot, just to steal
- 4:12Speaker 1: his camera. And as Honda Accord officers make a desperate
- 4:18Speaker 1: plea for tourists that may have video footage around that time.
- 4:23Speaker 1: And it was seven fifty in the morning. I mean,
- 4:26Speaker 1: come on, Beth Chapman, you're the reality star. Everybody you know,
- 4:29Speaker 1: dog the bounty hunter. This is best Chapman, Dog's wife
- 4:33Speaker 1: who was his co star for many many years now
- 4:36Speaker 1: the president of the Professional Bill Agents of the US.
- 4:39Speaker 1: At seven fifty in the morning, I'm driving the children
- 4:42Speaker 1: to school. I've been up since five working, and these
- 4:46Speaker 1: two are crawling up the side of a mountain so
- 4:49Speaker 1: they can murder somebody, a professional photographer world renown. This
- 4:54Speaker 1: is why we need accountability. Beth absolutely should have been
- 4:58Speaker 1: in jail. There's no way that he should have gotten
- 5:00Speaker 1: out a second time, nor the third time. And you know,
- 5:03Speaker 1: the thing about it is a lot of these people
- 5:05Speaker 1: have underlining problems and they don't realize those guys are
- 5:08Speaker 1: up all night long. They're up all night long, you know,
- 5:12Speaker 1: they're they're not sleeping. So there, you know, we used
- 5:14Speaker 1: to call that tweaked time. You know, it's when they
- 5:17Speaker 1: really don't know what time it is, they don't know
- 5:19Speaker 1: where they are, what they're doing, and they just commit
- 5:21Speaker 1: basically crime after crime after crime, you know. And that's
- 5:25Speaker 1: that's the problem with all of these pre trial movements
- 5:28Speaker 1: is that there's no stop gaps. There's no common sense
- 5:30Speaker 1: parameters that basically say, you know, look, if you're on
- 5:33Speaker 1: bond already, you don't get another one. If you fail
- 5:35Speaker 1: to appear already, don't get one. If you're just been
- 5:38Speaker 1: convicted of a crime, you're not getting one. And that's
- 5:40Speaker 1: what's really bothersome about the whole system. Well, this guy
- 5:44Speaker 1: was only about half a mile from his own home
- 5:47Speaker 1: and he's out. This professional photographer. There was a seventy
- 5:51Speaker 1: one year old man. He's been a world right now
- 5:54Speaker 1: photographer for years and years and years. And these two
- 6:00Speaker 1: knee up on the guy, murder him, shoot him in
- 6:03Speaker 1: the head for his camera. And as Honda Accord, Jason Oceans,
- 6:09Speaker 1: how can you, as of upstanding a very well known
- 6:13Speaker 1: defense attorney, support the so called bond reform for people
- 6:18Speaker 1: basically for a lot of different crimes get a ticket
- 6:21Speaker 1: and walk free. They don't have to post any bond
- 6:24Speaker 1: and they just walk free. There's no it's like a
- 6:27Speaker 1: pinky promise, Jason Oceans. Nancy, we know that anyone who's
- 6:32Speaker 1: arrested has presumed innocent under the law, and of course,
- 6:35Speaker 1: man fact, the innocent uh mostly guilty just to get out.
- 6:39Speaker 1: That's a repulsive practice. I mean I could cite many
- 6:42Speaker 1: cases of you know, a single mother in Harris County,
- 6:46Speaker 1: Texas who was arrested driving without a valid license, Judge
- 6:49Speaker 1: Setter bail. She couldn't afford anything. But see, that's not
- 6:53Speaker 1: the issue we're talking about. That's not the that's not
- 6:56Speaker 1: the issue we're even talking about. Jason. I'm not talking
- 6:59Speaker 1: about a graphic violation, Nancy, about valid bail reform and
- 7:03Speaker 1: the Heinish cases that we could all point out. Uh,
- 7:07Speaker 1: just like in ed French. Uh, there is like that
- 7:14Speaker 1: and so many are locked up. Well, of course you've
- 7:17Speaker 1: done a great job, Jason, of smoke and mirrors taking
- 7:20Speaker 1: it off. What we're talking about violent offenders getting out
- 7:24Speaker 1: and then repeat offending while they're on bail, while their
- 7:28Speaker 1: own bond. And with me two stars Beth Chapman and
- 7:32Speaker 1: Scott Hall in the industry respond plays Beth, Well, I
- 7:36Speaker 1: would I would like to discuss this with Jason, obviously,
- 7:39Speaker 1: because you know, there's an underlying crime here, okay, And
- 7:42Speaker 1: whether it's a misdemeanor or not a misdemeanor, we can't
- 7:45Speaker 1: just excuse the fact that this mother, the single mother,
- 7:49Speaker 1: as you said, was driving her car without a license.
- 7:51Speaker 1: That's a crime. It's a crime, okay, And so what
- 7:55Speaker 1: all of these you know, leftist people are are are boasting,
- 8:00Speaker 1: is that we should just turn a blind eye because
- 8:02Speaker 1: it's a minor crime. We should just turn the blind
- 8:04Speaker 1: eye because it was a you know, a driving offense.
- 8:08Speaker 1: You know, multiple driving offenses becomes a habitual traffic offender,
- 8:12Speaker 1: that becomes a prisonable offense. You know, we we cannot
- 8:16Speaker 1: just continue to just say, oh, it was just a
- 8:18Speaker 1: minor crime, just let him go because there's victims involved.
- 8:21Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, Beth, let me one up here
- 8:23Speaker 1: on this, Let me one up here on this. Does
- 8:25Speaker 1: the name Timothy McVeigh ring any alarms, any bells in
- 8:30Speaker 1: your heads? He was stopped on a traffic infraction, Scott Hall.
- 8:36Speaker 1: We all know that he's the Okay City bomber. He
- 8:39Speaker 1: brought down a whole federal building. So I'm not saying
- 8:42Speaker 1: I want people in jail FIRS traffic offense. That is
- 8:45Speaker 1: not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is don't make
- 8:48Speaker 1: light of those traffic stops. I'm focusing on people that
- 8:52Speaker 1: commit a crime, a substantive crime, and then they walk free.
- 8:56Speaker 1: And this bill reform idea is a horrible idea. It's
- 9:01Speaker 1: really an attack on victims. I mean, victims are the
- 9:04Speaker 1: ones that are in fact, denied justice when individuals failed
- 9:09Speaker 1: to appear. Bail is about one thing, It's about getting
- 9:13Speaker 1: someone to appear in court. And I'm so glad he
- 9:16Speaker 1: brought up Harris County, Texas, because the assertions in Harris
- 9:20Speaker 1: County when they put forth the injunction, they said there
- 9:23Speaker 1: would be no difference in the appearance rate, no difference.
- 9:28Speaker 1: And right now they just attempted to file an injunction
- 9:31Speaker 1: because full one half of their calendar, almost fifty of
- 9:36Speaker 1: the people that are charged with a crime are failing
- 9:39Speaker 1: to appear in court, fifty of the victims. And you
- 9:45Speaker 1: may think just because it's non violent, but the poor
- 9:48Speaker 1: black and brown victims of crime that live in the project,
- 9:52Speaker 1: that have their win, that broke out of their car,
- 9:54Speaker 1: that have their rent money stolen, Okay, they're the ones
- 9:58Speaker 1: that are being affected. You're the ones that are being
- 10:01Speaker 1: victimized a second and a third time, and they're the
- 10:04Speaker 1: ones that are going to take the law in their
- 10:06Speaker 1: own hand. And that mother that depends on that money
- 10:09Speaker 1: that was stolen, that the that the proponents of this
- 10:12Speaker 1: change you're saying we're helping, you're harming the very people
- 10:16Speaker 1: that you're saying you're advocating for Okay, we're over here
- 10:20Speaker 1: advocating for the law abiding people and the victims of
- 10:23Speaker 1: Chris Well. I'll tell you what concerns me and Ashley Wilcot,
- 10:27Speaker 1: this is what discurs me. In addition to Beth Chapman,
- 10:30Speaker 1: star reality TV dog Bounty Hunter, Jason Ocean's lawyer, Jennifer Zakowski,
- 10:36Speaker 1: Crime Stories investigative reporter and Heavy dot com Steve Hall,
- 10:41Speaker 1: Ash Wilcott JUVENI I'll judge and founder child crime watch
- 10:45Speaker 1: dot com. When I hear all the A c o
- 10:48Speaker 1: U and the defense attorneys are and the politicians are
- 10:53Speaker 1: for it, half the politicians are defense lawyers, all right.
- 10:57Speaker 1: So when I hear there for it, what does that
- 11:00Speaker 1: mean to me? It means it's bad for crime victims.
- 11:03Speaker 1: It is a matter of fact. Guess who else is
- 11:05Speaker 1: against it? California judges, judicial societies all across the country
- 11:11Speaker 1: are coming out against so called bail bond reform. Explain
- 11:17Speaker 1: why it is so wrong, Ashley. So from the judges perspective,
- 11:21Speaker 1: there two reasons. Number one, it does not take into
- 11:25Speaker 1: account the victim. It does not take that into account.
- 11:30Speaker 1: Number two, remember this, Nancy, I've been involved in a
- 11:33Speaker 1: lot of legislation down at the Capitol. And here's the thing.
- 11:36Speaker 1: Most of these proposed pieces of legislation, these included our
- 11:40Speaker 1: knee jerk reactions by some person who's decided it's a
- 11:44Speaker 1: great idea and it's not well thought out research based
- 11:49Speaker 1: on empirical research or data to ensure that victims are protected.
- 11:53Speaker 1: And that's what needs to happen that hasn't in proposed
- 11:56Speaker 1: legislation like that. You know. Back to you, Beth Chapman,
- 12:01Speaker 1: star of Dog the Bounding Hunter. This is Dog's wife.
- 12:04Speaker 1: I don't like introducing you that way as somebody else's wife.
- 12:08Speaker 1: You were also the president of the Professional Bill Agents
- 12:11Speaker 1: of the US, Beth. Uh. When I would get ready
- 12:15Speaker 1: at every prosecutor that was actually a trial lawyer, you know,
- 12:18Speaker 1: and actually appeared in court had to do bond hearings
- 12:21Speaker 1: as well. For a bond hearing, I may bring on
- 12:25Speaker 1: a witness that saw or was the victim of the crime,
- 12:28Speaker 1: a cop. I would have the rap sheet, the state
- 12:32Speaker 1: rap sheet and the federal rap sheet of defendants trying
- 12:36Speaker 1: to get out, suspects trying to get out, and I
- 12:39Speaker 1: would discuss all the reasons somebody should or shouldn't get
- 12:43Speaker 1: out of bond. Are they a risk, a flight risk?
- 12:45Speaker 1: Are they a threat to the community? Will they tamper
- 12:48Speaker 1: with witnesses? Is it in the cause of justice that
- 12:51Speaker 1: they get out? There are a lot of prongs to
- 12:53Speaker 1: a bond hearing. The judges are saying this beath. The
- 12:57Speaker 1: judges are saying that they proposed ows this because they
- 13:02Speaker 1: have their own standards about who walks free. Quote those
- 13:07Speaker 1: arrested for selling drugs, identity theft, vandalizing homes, businesses, stealing
- 13:13Speaker 1: huge sums of money, burglarizing. All of these people would
- 13:18Speaker 1: be granted pre trial release without ever appearing in front
- 13:21Speaker 1: of a judge. I don't want to see that person
- 13:24Speaker 1: walking across my backyard, Beth Chapman, Well, repeatedly walking across
- 13:28Speaker 1: your backyard, so right after you get him arrested, he
- 13:31Speaker 1: comes right back. I mean, that's that's the biggest problem
- 13:34Speaker 1: with this. But you know, taking the judges discretion out
- 13:39Speaker 1: of the equation is never going to be a good idea.
- 13:42Speaker 1: And you know, for people who just continue to say
- 13:44Speaker 1: the bail bondsman's are just making money off the poor.
- 13:47Speaker 1: Was so are the lawyers. You know, lawyers aren't giving
- 13:50Speaker 1: their practices away for free. I'm sure your defense attorney
- 13:53Speaker 1: here on the line. I'm sure he charges money, you know.
- 13:56Speaker 1: So it's it's all smoke in mirrors. Like you've said before,
- 14:01Speaker 1: it is a socialist idea. It's a basic a hugg
- 14:05Speaker 1: a thug campaign that is trendy right now because they
- 14:09Speaker 1: have gone down and they have convinced lawmakers and they've
- 14:13Speaker 1: convinced mayors of towns that they could save so much
- 14:17Speaker 1: money by releasing these people from jail. But the fact
- 14:20Speaker 1: is is that they have to have more pre trial
- 14:23Speaker 1: workers to take care of the massive amount of people
- 14:26Speaker 1: that they're releasing. So there is no money's saved because
- 14:30Speaker 1: all they're doing is taking it out of the jail
- 14:32Speaker 1: column and putting it into the pre trial Champion, Nancy,
- 14:37Speaker 1: It's important to understand and Harris County, Texas, the judges
- 14:41Speaker 1: are the ones that are fighting this reform. The judges
- 14:45Speaker 1: are the ones that are encouraging the county to continue
- 14:47Speaker 1: because they now see what's happening to their calendar. And
- 14:51Speaker 1: the proponents of these reforms typically take basically an exception.
- 14:55Speaker 1: They look for a very very narrow exception someone that
- 14:59Speaker 1: might in rather than basically fighting for a safety net okay,
- 15:04Speaker 1: some sort of safety net to take care of these
- 15:07Speaker 1: They want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
- 15:09Speaker 1: And what they're doing is they're victimizing again the very
- 15:13Speaker 1: constituents they advocate for, and that's the poor black and
- 15:17Speaker 1: brown members of our society that need help that don't
- 15:21Speaker 1: have an advocate. And that's what we are pushing for.
- 15:24Speaker 1: The bondsman, in many cases, are the way for these
- 15:28Speaker 1: people to get out. They're not rich, okay, when they
- 15:30Speaker 1: don't have money for a bond, they in fact come
- 15:33Speaker 1: to us to help them financing. We don't set the bond.
- 15:37Speaker 1: We're not the people that says release them. A judge
- 15:40Speaker 1: does that. And they even advocate for these algorithmic releases
- 15:44Speaker 1: in attempt to replace Oh no, no, no, no, no no,
- 15:49Speaker 1: Ash Wilcott. You're a victims advocate like myself. I don't
- 15:53Speaker 1: want somebody an offender walking free based on a logarithm.
- 15:57Speaker 1: No no. And but here's the thing, Anthy, if they
- 16:00Speaker 1: would be deliberate in this, they could come up with
- 16:04Speaker 1: a risk assessment based on empirical research and data that
- 16:08Speaker 1: a judge could do with the judge's discretion and still
- 16:13Speaker 1: protect those in society that will be harmed by these
- 16:17Speaker 1: continuing criminal perpetrators. Did you know about a recent law
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- 17:30Speaker 1: Nancy enter your own name. Get started. Let me go
- 17:34Speaker 1: back to Jennifer Tikowski with heavy dot Com and crime
- 17:37Speaker 1: Stories investigative reporter. I believe you have another case where
- 17:41Speaker 1: the guys out on bond and commits a serious offense, Nancy,
- 17:46Speaker 1: and this one is absolutely horrifying. Shook me to my core.
- 17:51Speaker 1: I just starts with Cherished Peri Weekle out of Jacksonville, Florida,
- 17:58Speaker 1: in innocent eight year old girl, Cherish, who was at
- 18:02Speaker 1: Dollar General. She was shopping with her mother, Rain Perrywinkle,
- 18:06Speaker 1: and two sisters when a man approached them. This man
- 18:09Speaker 1: was Donald Smith. He seemed like a really good man
- 18:13Speaker 1: to Cherry, to Cherish his mother, he befriended her and
- 18:17Speaker 1: then made what the mother thought was a general generous
- 18:20Speaker 1: offer to buy the girl's clothes with a hundred dollar
- 18:24Speaker 1: gift card that he said he had for Walmart. He
- 18:28Speaker 1: also claimed that his wife was going to meet the
- 18:31Speaker 1: family at Walmart. So this mother, Rain Perrywinkle said she
- 18:36Speaker 1: told him, I don't quote with strangers, but if your
- 18:39Speaker 1: wife is coming, then it's going to be okay. She
- 18:43Speaker 1: made it up in her mind. You know it. It
- 18:46Speaker 1: will be fine. Rain Perrywinkle gathered her children into Smith's
- 18:51Speaker 1: white band for wife a ride to Walmart. Surveillance video
- 18:55Speaker 1: at the store showed Rain, the girls, and Donald Smith
- 18:59Speaker 1: shopping at Walmart for over an hour. In that time period,
- 19:04Speaker 1: Cherished Periwinkle, the eldest of the three daughters, She went
- 19:08Speaker 1: with Donald Smith several times over the shoes section of
- 19:12Speaker 1: the store. The mom later said that she didn't think
- 19:15Speaker 1: much of it because she felt she was in a
- 19:17Speaker 1: safe place being in Walmart, Rain watched Cherish, her beloved
- 19:24Speaker 1: daughter with Donald Smith walk away, and heartbreakingly, she had
- 19:29Speaker 1: no idea. She didn't realize this was going to be
- 19:32Speaker 1: the last time that she would ever see her daughter.
- 19:36Speaker 1: She went to meet Donald at the registers just as
- 19:38Speaker 1: the door the store was closing too, presumably by these
- 19:43Speaker 1: clothes for the children, and lo and behold, Donald doesn't
- 19:46Speaker 1: show up. At that point, the red flags went up
- 19:50Speaker 1: and she called nine one one and reported her daughter,
- 19:53Speaker 1: Cherished as being kidnapped. It then seems Rain really had
- 19:57Speaker 1: a premonition when she told the nine one an operator
- 20:00Speaker 1: in her words, I hope to God he doesn't kill her.
- 20:04Speaker 1: I hope to God he doesn't rape her. I don't
- 20:07Speaker 1: understand why, we why he would have left right now
- 20:11Speaker 1: unless he's going to rape and kill her. That's the
- 20:14Speaker 1: only reason so this tour and all to trusting. Mother
- 20:19Speaker 1: told the operator that the only reason she let Donald
- 20:22Speaker 1: Smith do this, it's because her girls truly needed the clothing. Well,
- 20:26Speaker 1: I think we all know the rest of that story.
- 20:28Speaker 1: Jason Oceans Cherish Periwinkle was raped and murdered, and the
- 20:35Speaker 1: killer had been really the recipient of the revolving door justice.
- 20:42Speaker 1: He would go in and out for stalking children, for
- 20:47Speaker 1: child pornography, for raping young girls. He had been in
- 20:53Speaker 1: and out and in and out of the system. Jason,
- 20:58Speaker 1: he was out. Why was he out? And with him
- 21:02Speaker 1: in mind, why in the world would we even consider
- 21:06Speaker 1: people walking free without posting bail or bond and going
- 21:10Speaker 1: through the bond and bill process. You sign a piece
- 21:13Speaker 1: of paper, you walk out, your pinky swear you'll show
- 21:15Speaker 1: back up and you'll behave It doesn't work that way.
- 21:18Speaker 1: This guy was out and he murdered Cherish. Weigh in, Scott,
- 21:23Speaker 1: I would like to make the point about it's not
- 21:25Speaker 1: only about these horrendous crimes. If we all should agree
- 21:29Speaker 1: that these people shouldn't be roaming the streets at all,
- 21:32Speaker 1: but Let's just take the chains at the City of
- 21:34Speaker 1: Atlanta just recently made on the misdemeanor shop listing. You've
- 21:38Speaker 1: got charges. You can go into a loose and sent
- 21:41Speaker 1: and steal five dollars, steal a toolbox, walk out, and
- 21:45Speaker 1: if you get caught. See if Atlanta won't even send
- 21:48Speaker 1: a police officer to your store. And if their security
- 21:52Speaker 1: takes you to the City of Atlanta and they book
- 21:55Speaker 1: you in and your charge, they release you immediately, Okay,
- 21:59Speaker 1: no ending of fact, no criminal history, that release you immediately.
- 22:03Speaker 1: And if you fail to appear, they don't have a
- 22:07Speaker 1: fugitive squad that chases people on these misdemeanor charges, so
- 22:11Speaker 1: they're hoping some other agency will accidentally catch you. So
- 22:16Speaker 1: you're roaming. Now, Let's assume Hall County, which is over
- 22:19Speaker 1: fifty miles from the City of Atlanta, accidentally stops you.
- 22:23Speaker 1: City of Atlanta won't even send two officers to pick
- 22:26Speaker 1: you up over fifty miles because it's not a justifiable
- 22:31Speaker 1: use of resources. It is absolutely insane that they would
- 22:36Speaker 1: in fact set these policies basically encouraging people to commit
- 22:41Speaker 1: because you're harming people that have businesses. You wonder why
- 22:45Speaker 1: these dollar generals and places close and these poorest of
- 22:48Speaker 1: neighborhoods because they're stolen to deaths and you lose those
- 22:53Speaker 1: jobs and you lose that vital business in that community.
- 22:57Speaker 1: We are enabling, if not encouraging, bad behavior. And that's
- 23:01Speaker 1: what the criminal justice system is supposed to deter. We're
- 23:05Speaker 1: supposed to say no, this is not conduct. And unfortunately
- 23:09Speaker 1: the laws in our country are merely becoming suggestions. You
- 23:13Speaker 1: don't see these suggestions in these other countries. You know,
- 23:17Speaker 1: if you break the law, you stay in ja. In
- 23:21Speaker 1: our country, we say it's no big deal. You know
- 23:24Speaker 1: what's interesting. Back to Beth Chapman, star of Dog, the
- 23:28Speaker 1: Mounting Hunter, President Professional Bill Agents of the US. You're
- 23:33Speaker 1: gonna laugh, Beth. And this is anecdotal. This is not
- 23:36Speaker 1: a statistic that I've come up with. But I recall
- 23:40Speaker 1: every time when I first came as a new prosecutor
- 23:44Speaker 1: and I would hear the older seasoned veterans say peeping Tom,
- 23:49Speaker 1: and I would at first thought, well, peeping time's a misdemeanor.
- 23:52Speaker 1: It's nothing you so you peeked in the window. Guarantee
- 23:55Speaker 1: your Beth, Peeping Tom graduates and I and explain it
- 24:00Speaker 1: I'm not a shrink, but they turn into a rapist
- 24:05Speaker 1: or a felony while you're I mean, I can't describe it.
- 24:10Speaker 1: But what I'm saying, yes, yes, you're right, Jason. What
- 24:14Speaker 1: I'm saying is that's a misdemeanor. But I know the
- 24:19Speaker 1: psychopathy of a peeping tom turns into a felon. I mean,
- 24:24Speaker 1: like look at b t K. Dennis Rader buying torture kill.
- 24:28Speaker 1: He was a dog catcher. Okay, he had little things
- 24:34Speaker 1: that people thought were odd his whole life. Little did
- 24:37Speaker 1: they know he's a serial murderer. And I'm not saying
- 24:41Speaker 1: that people with a traffic violation because Jason Ocean is
- 24:43Speaker 1: gonna get all tuned up about that lady with the
- 24:45Speaker 1: traffic violation. What what I'm saying is, Beth Chapman, is
- 24:51Speaker 1: that you let people walk on all of these offenses,
- 24:55Speaker 1: some of them not really misdemeanors, without some kind of
- 24:59Speaker 1: secure already or some kind of vetting process. We're unleashing
- 25:04Speaker 1: a whole canner hurt on the on the innocent public. Beth.
- 25:08Speaker 1: But Nancy, Nancy, now about you are not there? You are,
- 25:13Speaker 1: Jason Oceans, hold on, well, you know, look we're we're
- 25:20Speaker 1: taking away accountability. But what we're also doing is we're
- 25:23Speaker 1: taking away you know, parental uh judgment. Okay, there are
- 25:30Speaker 1: people in this country that will you know, people will say, um,
- 25:34Speaker 1: you know, the guy is in jail because these four
- 25:37Speaker 1: they can't come up with the money. It's not always
- 25:40Speaker 1: true that they can't come up with the money. It's
- 25:42Speaker 1: sometimes their parents don't want to come up with the money.
- 25:45Speaker 1: Sometimes their family and their loved ones are sick of them,
- 25:48Speaker 1: and they know how much trouble they've been in, they
- 25:51Speaker 1: know how much drugs they're doing on a day to
- 25:53Speaker 1: day basis. And sometimes these people are glad when they
- 25:57Speaker 1: finally find out that their love one is in jail
- 26:01Speaker 1: because that may be the only thing that saves them.
- 26:03Speaker 1: And basically, what we're doing right now is we're not
- 26:06Speaker 1: even giving them a chance to even get clean or
- 26:09Speaker 1: get sober and let the family have a chance to
- 26:11Speaker 1: be able to talk to him and say, hey, look
- 26:13Speaker 1: we'll bond you out. But these are going to be
- 26:15Speaker 1: the new rules, you know, like there's no way to
- 26:18Speaker 1: even control these people. And quite honestly, and you know,
- 26:21Speaker 1: no disrespect Jason, but I gotta tell you the criminal
- 26:24Speaker 1: element of this country is laughing at us. They are
- 26:28Speaker 1: laughing in the face of the judges. They are laughing.
- 26:31Speaker 1: They cannot believe how dumb we are that we're just
- 26:33Speaker 1: letting them out with no bonds. Hold on, hold on,
- 26:36Speaker 1: out to bail Bondsman Scott Hall weigh in, Scott, Yes, well,
- 26:40Speaker 1: let's just take again the City of Atlanta. The City
- 26:43Speaker 1: of the City Council did a study not too long ago,
- 26:46Speaker 1: and they said, just tell us about what's going on
- 26:48Speaker 1: with recticism. They found out they need a study that
- 26:52Speaker 1: a little over four hundred people accounted for over fourteen
- 26:58Speaker 1: thousand crimes. Okay, now, just imagine what impact we could
- 27:03Speaker 1: have had on the victims of crime if we just
- 27:06Speaker 1: kept these four hundred people off the streets. You know what,
- 27:11Speaker 1: here's a perfect example, Astley Willcott. I'm gonna go to
- 27:14Speaker 1: Jennifer Sigowski on this Crime Stories investigative reporter Ronnie Pershing
- 27:20Speaker 1: Grantham drove ten miles the wrong way on Interstate six
- 27:24Speaker 1: forty while he's free on bond for allegedly killing two
- 27:30Speaker 1: women drugged behind the wheel. Okay, he's out on bond
- 27:36Speaker 1: for killing two women, and then he's driving ten miles
- 27:42Speaker 1: the wrong way on the interstate where everybody's going sev mph.
- 27:49Speaker 1: Help me understand why that's okay, Absolutely not okay in
- 27:53Speaker 1: my mind. These two women, Janette Hurst only four years old,
- 27:59Speaker 1: Tammy Shore fifty three, they lost their lives, and while
- 28:04Speaker 1: this investigation was ongoing, he was released on bond on
- 28:09Speaker 1: not to mention ThEC The officers found prescription painkillers and
- 28:14Speaker 1: not just you know, anything small. It was morphine oxy
- 28:18Speaker 1: code owns in ballium in his possession after that crash,
- 28:23Speaker 1: and as you know, it didn't end there. Despite that,
- 28:26Speaker 1: he was indicted and let out out of five hundred
- 28:29Speaker 1: thousand dollar bond in April. Just this past April, he
- 28:34Speaker 1: crashed his truck into two vehicles as he yet again
- 28:38Speaker 1: drove the wrong way. He drove east in the westbound
- 28:42Speaker 1: lanes on inner State and Tennessee for ten miles in
- 28:46Speaker 1: the early morning hours. He had been traveling east in
- 28:50Speaker 1: westbound lanes. He hit another vehicle and this monster didn't
- 28:54Speaker 1: stop there. Ten miles later, he hit a tractor trailer.
- 28:59Speaker 1: The second crash caused brandam truck to catch fire and
- 29:03Speaker 1: he was rescued by a passer by. Not sure how
- 29:06Speaker 1: I feel about that part and the God, Nancy, neither
- 29:11Speaker 1: neither of the two drivers who he struck were injured.
- 29:15Speaker 1: But why was he out? How on earth in this
- 29:18Speaker 1: wonderful country that I knew as a child, is this happening?
- 29:22Speaker 1: What is going on in this country? And why are
- 29:24Speaker 1: these dangerous people being let out? Now? Let me ask
- 29:27Speaker 1: you something to Beth Chapman, uh, star of reality TV
- 29:32Speaker 1: and president Professional Bill Agents of the u S. Beth,
- 29:37Speaker 1: what is the purpose in a nutshell of the bail
- 29:41Speaker 1: bond system? Why do we need it? Well, the main
- 29:44Speaker 1: reason for the bail bond system is to ensure the
- 29:46Speaker 1: person's appearance in court. You know, this is a user
- 29:50Speaker 1: funded service where if you get in trouble, will help
- 29:53Speaker 1: you get out, but we have to make sure that
- 29:55Speaker 1: you return back to court. And if they don't return
- 29:57Speaker 1: back to court, then we go out no cost to
- 30:00Speaker 1: the tax fairer, and we bring them back to the
- 30:03Speaker 1: jurisdiction of the court, and if not, we pay the
- 30:07Speaker 1: full amount of the bond to the court. Nancy, I'd
- 30:10Speaker 1: like to make a comment. This disgust and you know,
- 30:13Speaker 1: because if you go back in time, you know it
- 30:15Speaker 1: was really in the intention of the founders. When you're
- 30:18Speaker 1: choosed with breaking the law. Your choose your charged with
- 30:22Speaker 1: in fact committing a crime. It was their intentions that
- 30:25Speaker 1: you sit in jail until your court dates unless you
- 30:30Speaker 1: could create some kind of guarantee, and typically it was
- 30:34Speaker 1: your employer, your family member. They wanted a third party.
- 30:38Speaker 1: They said, all right, there is the presumption of innocence,
- 30:41Speaker 1: but there's also the rights of the society and victims.
- 30:45Speaker 1: So we need to balance those two. So we're gonna
- 30:47Speaker 1: release you until we wait for the judge to ride
- 30:50Speaker 1: up on a horse. We in fact want some kind
- 30:53Speaker 1: of guarantee that the victim will actually get justice, and
- 30:57Speaker 1: we've been throwing We act like the victims have no right.
- 31:01Speaker 1: So the only purpose of bail is in fact to
- 31:04Speaker 1: ensure their appearance, so society at large, and most importantly
- 31:10Speaker 1: the victim of that crime. And it doesn't have to
- 31:13Speaker 1: be murder or rape. If you stole my billfole okay,
- 31:18Speaker 1: and you broke the window of my car, if I
- 31:21Speaker 1: am poor, okay, that may be my rent money for
- 31:24Speaker 1: the month. It's about justice for the victim, and nobody
- 31:28Speaker 1: gets justice if the accused doesn't show up. And as
- 31:32Speaker 1: the example I gave you in the city of Atlanta.
- 31:34Speaker 1: These cities and counties don't have the resources to rearrest
- 31:38Speaker 1: people again and again and again on these minor crimes.
- 31:43Speaker 1: So society has always depended on Since government can't figure out, okay,
- 31:48Speaker 1: who's gonna appear and who's not gonna appear, they say, well,
- 31:51Speaker 1: they need some skin in the game. And that's why
- 31:54Speaker 1: you want the family to come to the table. You
- 31:57Speaker 1: want a third party, like a bonding company, to put
- 32:00Speaker 1: something of value, and that value differs what what might
- 32:05Speaker 1: be sufficient in my case might not be sufficient in
- 32:08Speaker 1: Michael Jackson's case. Ashley Wilcott, I want to put another
- 32:11Speaker 1: case to you. What's out of Rossford. And this is
- 32:15Speaker 1: a guy that previously had no criminal record. Everybody thought
- 32:18Speaker 1: it was a great guy. Okay. His name is every
- 32:22Speaker 1: M Schwartz and he had been out on a hundred
- 32:27Speaker 1: thousand dollar bond on rape. And you know what happens
- 32:34Speaker 1: while he's out on bond on a hundred thousand dollar
- 32:36Speaker 1: bond that means he only has to put up ten
- 32:38Speaker 1: thousand dollars. He's arrested by Toledo police that's Saturday, charged
- 32:46Speaker 1: with another rape. Now this is after ten to fifteen
- 32:49Speaker 1: letters from relatives to the judge saying what a great
- 32:52Speaker 1: guy he is and vouching for him. He pled no low,
- 32:58Speaker 1: no contest and was found guilty of rape, a first
- 33:02Speaker 1: degree felony, but at the time he was out on bond.
- 33:08Speaker 1: Ashley out on bond. Why Here's what doesn't make sense
- 33:15Speaker 1: to me as a judge. I have to balance the
- 33:18Speaker 1: risk of the danger post to society and the likelihood
- 33:23Speaker 1: the defendant is going to return to court against the
- 33:26Speaker 1: safety of releasing that defendant on bond and ensuring that
- 33:30Speaker 1: that defendant will come back to court. You have to
- 33:33Speaker 1: look at the actual crime rape, but also is it
- 33:37Speaker 1: a misdemeanor? Is it a felony? This was a first
- 33:40Speaker 1: degree felony, And so the bond amount when I hear
- 33:44Speaker 1: that set of facts, to me is way too low
- 33:47Speaker 1: because the likelihood we all know statistically, and if you
- 33:50Speaker 1: read about criminals who rape, it's not about having sex,
- 33:54Speaker 1: it's about the anger and all the other things behind it.
- 33:56Speaker 1: And guess what they're gonna do. They're one of the
- 33:58Speaker 1: most likely to go out and commit that same crime again.
- 34:01Speaker 1: So it doesn't make sense to me why that person
- 34:05Speaker 1: was released on bonte And it's why courts have to
- 34:07Speaker 1: have the discretion to do that balancing act to protect
- 34:11Speaker 1: victims in society, which is why I don't think algorithms work.
- 34:15Speaker 1: Yes with me, is renowed defense turning Jason Oceans Jason,
- 34:20Speaker 1: I hope you're also sitting down because one of his
- 34:23Speaker 1: rape victims was one of the people that had written
- 34:27Speaker 1: the character letter he raped one of his references. According
- 34:31Speaker 1: to police, we're not going to find in any of
- 34:33Speaker 1: these horrible stories anything good that we're going to talk
- 34:37Speaker 1: about the justice system in general, whether it's judicial discretion
- 34:41Speaker 1: or recidivism. These are you know, broader strokes than just
- 34:45Speaker 1: trying to narrow it down to reformation of the bail system.
- 34:49Speaker 1: But for each of these horrible stories of victims uh
- 34:53Speaker 1: and recidivism. Uh. You you're you're faced with you know,
- 34:58Speaker 1: those arrested for time on three thousand dollars of bail
- 35:02Speaker 1: and wait three years before the charges are dismissed. You
- 35:06Speaker 1: know our justice, you know what You're right. I'm agreeing
- 35:09Speaker 1: with you on that, Jason. That's why we don't need
- 35:13Speaker 1: a blanket approach to crime, because people that really don't
- 35:17Speaker 1: have an offense and it's really just a traffic to
- 35:19Speaker 1: get fine. But what about the other ones that I'm
- 35:23Speaker 1: not free. I'm not saying everybody's a criminal. I'm saying
- 35:27Speaker 1: that this reform is no reform. And and there are
- 35:30Speaker 1: judges who are bad judges. You've got different perspectives on
- 35:35Speaker 1: the relationship of victims to society and the perpetrator. And
- 35:40Speaker 1: and they'll low bail and they won't come back and
- 35:42Speaker 1: they'll commit more acts. So that's not within bail reform.
- 35:46Speaker 1: That's on you know, those judges that are either elected
- 35:49Speaker 1: or appointed. But I don't think there's anything wrong with
- 35:52Speaker 1: a risk assessment score that considers a person's flight because
- 35:56Speaker 1: the judge said and danger to the community and her assessment, Uh,
- 36:00Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that. And approaching misdemeanors, you don't
- 36:03Speaker 1: need for a first time offensive driving without a license,
- 36:08Speaker 1: notwithstanding best point that it's a crime. Everything is a crime,
- 36:12Speaker 1: from a b misdemeanor to a felony. Well, I'm telling you,
- 36:15Speaker 1: I'm telling you everything is not a crime. Minding your
- 36:19Speaker 1: own business and working and taking care of your family
- 36:22Speaker 1: is not a crime. Attacking other people, murdering, raping, peeping
- 36:27Speaker 1: tom the works, those are crime. Everything is not a crime.
- 36:30Speaker 1: And frankly, Jason notions to side on the to air
- 36:33Speaker 1: on the side of caution. I would be more draconian,
- 36:37Speaker 1: more strict to protect innocent victims than this blanket. Open
- 36:42Speaker 1: the doors and let everybody walk free. But that's not
- 36:45Speaker 1: the end of it, Best Chapman, right now, a problem
- 36:49Speaker 1: with Google. What's happening? Best? Well, Google just recently um
- 36:54Speaker 1: announced that they will no longer take Google ads from
- 36:57Speaker 1: our profession from the bail industry, claiming that we are
- 37:02Speaker 1: you know, basic predators on the of the minorities and
- 37:09Speaker 1: and the challenged folks, you know, and they are basically
- 37:14Speaker 1: saying that they will no longer allow us to run
- 37:17Speaker 1: our advertising on Google. And then Facebook out came out
- 37:21Speaker 1: and and concurred with that, you know. So basically now
- 37:25Speaker 1: we're talking about, you know, restricting a legal, legitimate, uh,
- 37:30Speaker 1: law abiding mom and pop operations who have been in
- 37:34Speaker 1: existence since the founding of this country, and now they're
- 37:38Speaker 1: being told that they can't advertise because you know, Google
- 37:41Speaker 1: doesn't agree that people should be incarcerated. But you know,
- 37:45Speaker 1: the unfortunate thing about that is it it's not the
- 37:47Speaker 1: bail agents who are incarcerating them. It's not the bail
- 37:49Speaker 1: agents who are setting bail. We don't use their funded service.
- 37:54Speaker 1: That is a vital, important service. And we've been here
- 37:56Speaker 1: and existence for more than two hundred years. You know,
- 38:00Speaker 1: the court sets the bond, the d a s set
- 38:03Speaker 1: the pace for the case. We just assure and guarantee
- 38:07Speaker 1: their appearance. That's that's the way it is. You know,
- 38:09Speaker 1: Facebook came out yesterday and said that you know that
- 38:12Speaker 1: her predatorial um practices has no place on Facebook. Well,
- 38:17Speaker 1: I think that you can go to Facebook and you
- 38:19Speaker 1: can find a lot of predatorial businesses being advertised there
- 38:24Speaker 1: on a day to day basis, you know. And I
- 38:26Speaker 1: feel that you know, Google and uh Google Ads and
- 38:30Speaker 1: Facebook have become too big, too powerful. They control too
- 38:33Speaker 1: much of the market share, and it's easy for them
- 38:36Speaker 1: to just start bullying people by saying, you know, we're
- 38:39Speaker 1: not gonna let you advertise your anymore because we don't
- 38:41Speaker 1: like you, we don't like what you do. Nancy. It's
- 38:44Speaker 1: a very slippery slope when you've got someone who's large
- 38:47Speaker 1: as Google trying to make these policy decisions. Assume what
- 38:52Speaker 1: they're alleging is that the bonding community, which is in
- 38:55Speaker 1: fact helping these poor people get out of jail or
- 38:59Speaker 1: some how taking advantage or are they gonna stop allowing
- 39:03Speaker 1: the lottery to advertise. Are they gonna stop allowing criminal
- 39:08Speaker 1: defense attorneys who in fact take advantage in their mind
- 39:12Speaker 1: because they charge a fee. I mean, anybody that makes
- 39:16Speaker 1: money the critical what about the banks? The bank charge
- 39:19Speaker 1: you thirty and forty dollars for a five dollar bad
- 39:21Speaker 1: check that bounces, okay, is that usury? I mean it's
- 39:26Speaker 1: a very slippery slope that they're going down, and they're
- 39:28Speaker 1: in fact preventing these people that need us the most
- 39:33Speaker 1: from obtaining their liberty because without companies willing to stand
- 39:39Speaker 1: in there instead. Basically, you know many cases if you've
- 39:43Speaker 1: got someone and we keep talking about these very large bonds.
- 39:46Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, I think
- 39:48Speaker 1: our average bond in George is about fifteen hundred dollars,
- 39:52Speaker 1: so the fee is a hundred and fifty dollars so
- 39:54Speaker 1: and and people should be up in arms when you
- 39:58Speaker 1: see like that in Bibb County, Georgia, where you had
- 40:02Speaker 1: a woman who was pregnant delivering a pizza, okay, to
- 40:06Speaker 1: a door. He got beat up by the people that
- 40:08Speaker 1: he delivered the pizza too, and they impact released her
- 40:12Speaker 1: on like a sevent d dollar bond. I mean that
- 40:14Speaker 1: he is insane. And you know, for Google to basically
- 40:18Speaker 1: to be influenced by these liberal groups that have no
- 40:21Speaker 1: intention of focusing on the acception, Well what what what
- 40:26Speaker 1: it concerns me about, guys? And I'm gonna throw this
- 40:29Speaker 1: to Jason Oceans who have disagreed so far. Jason Oceans
- 40:32Speaker 1: and Ashley woke up with me. Ashtley juvenal judge Jason
- 40:37Speaker 1: defense lawyer. Jason an issue about not being able to
- 40:41Speaker 1: advertise it on Google or Facebook. And I know they
- 40:46Speaker 1: believe they have their reasons, but here's the deal. Preventing
- 40:51Speaker 1: advertising does not reduce the need to make a bond. Okay,
- 40:56Speaker 1: it's just gonna make it harder to find a lender.
- 40:59Speaker 1: I mean, bail bonding is legal in our country, and
- 41:03Speaker 1: even if reforms go through, the so called reforms that
- 41:07Speaker 1: I oppose, even if they go through, they're still going
- 41:11Speaker 1: to be bail bonding all more serious crimes, not peeping
- 41:15Speaker 1: tom or not, you know, steal in a car maybe,
- 41:18Speaker 1: but other crimes. You still got to make a bond,
- 41:20Speaker 1: or you gotta try to make a bond. Taking it
- 41:23Speaker 1: off Google or Facebook. That makes people that do want
- 41:28Speaker 1: to make a bond, it's gonna be impossible for they
- 41:30Speaker 1: can't find a bondsman because they can't get access to
- 41:33Speaker 1: do it. Jason, No, I I don't necessarily disagree with that.
- 41:36Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how the advance will affect
- 41:39Speaker 1: bail bond Agencies bott Online, but I think the website
- 41:42Speaker 1: will just have to still come up on. I'm not
- 41:44Speaker 1: talking about Bill Bondsman just because I've got to well
- 41:47Speaker 1: known Bill bons And I'm talking about people, your clients
- 41:51Speaker 1: that are trying to make a bond. Hey, for me,
- 41:54Speaker 1: fine lock the door, keep them all in there until
- 41:56Speaker 1: they plead guilty or they go to trial. Okay, I'm
- 41:59Speaker 1: okay with that. But if you're gonna make a bond,
- 42:04Speaker 1: the Yellow Pages, the what the What, people go to Google,
- 42:11Speaker 1: and you take this down, how are your people gonna
- 42:14Speaker 1: get a bond? Jason. They can't even google it to
- 42:17Speaker 1: the time bail Bondsman. Here in New York City, in
- 42:20Speaker 1: the Tri State area, they're just ride all over around
- 42:23Speaker 1: the court. So I don't know that you have to
- 42:26Speaker 1: go seeking and looking. They're just right there. So self
- 42:29Speaker 1: advertising across the street. Well, the family that makes the bond,
- 42:33Speaker 1: Grandma that makes the bond Who's at home and she's
- 42:38Speaker 1: telling her, a fifteen year old granddaughter, Hey, yeah, what
- 42:40Speaker 1: what's a bond company? That girl is going to go
- 42:44Speaker 1: on her iPhones like my ten year old do, and
- 42:49Speaker 1: they're gonna look it up on Google, just like I do. Mananthy,
- 42:52Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not against advertising. I'm not against bail bonds. Uh.
- 42:56Speaker 1: When we're gonna talk about bail reformed, there's a lot
- 42:59Speaker 1: more that in your sex this uh, and it's comprehensive.
- 43:02Speaker 1: So you know, while you're taking the stories of evil
- 43:06Speaker 1: that happen in recidivism and those who are you know,
- 43:09Speaker 1: jumping jumping bad people that are out on bond that
- 43:12Speaker 1: commit violent crimes, no one, no one is supporting that
- 43:15Speaker 1: aspect of our criminal justice system. And you well know,
- 43:18Speaker 1: as a veteran prosecutor, the pluses and minuses of our system.
- 43:23Speaker 1: So if we're going to do bail reform, we've got
- 43:25Speaker 1: to do it comprehensively. Give the power back. I'm all
- 43:31Speaker 1: about bill reform. I'm okay bill with bill reform, but
- 43:34Speaker 1: not this bill reform. Okay, I don't like what they're
- 43:37Speaker 1: doing right here. But the other thing about not being
- 43:41Speaker 1: allowed to advertise is is crazy asthlet know. The problem
- 43:46Speaker 1: with that is here, Google is or any other company
- 43:49Speaker 1: like that, Facebook, whoever it is that says you can't
- 43:52Speaker 1: advertise this service because we fundamentally disagree, and we're on
- 43:56Speaker 1: board with reform that has to happen before is wrap.
- 44:00Speaker 1: It is using its power as a monopoly. It's not
- 44:03Speaker 1: truly a monopoly. But look at the number of users
- 44:05Speaker 1: right and everybody googles everything to find out I can use.
- 44:09Speaker 1: They are doing that in order to lobby. It's what
- 44:13Speaker 1: their lobbyists should be doing at the capitol, which is
- 44:15Speaker 1: why I go back to my first statement, which listen,
- 44:18Speaker 1: if you want to change any type of legislation has
- 44:21Speaker 1: got to be deliberate and well thought out in order
- 44:24Speaker 1: to ensure it's best for everyone's rights involved, including society,
- 44:29Speaker 1: including victims. And there's another thing to you, Beth Chapman.
- 44:34Speaker 1: Research shows that suspects released on commercial bail in other words,
- 44:39Speaker 1: somebody be at them or their grandma or their mom
- 44:42Speaker 1: or dad wife, people that put up money or how
- 44:47Speaker 1: spawned bail are more much more likely to show up
- 44:50Speaker 1: for trial than their counterparts that are released in other ways.
- 44:56Speaker 1: Not only that, bounty hunters are more likely than police
- 45:00Speaker 1: to capture those people who jump bail. That's important. Why
- 45:05Speaker 1: is that Because most fugitive squads don't exist anymore. Cops
- 45:09Speaker 1: are just trying to catch the new criminals. We don't
- 45:11Speaker 1: have time to track down the ones that jump bond.
- 45:14Speaker 1: That's where you come in. You know, definitely, when you
- 45:17Speaker 1: have some skin in the game and you have a
- 45:20Speaker 1: steak in what's going on in in your person's court case,
- 45:24Speaker 1: you know, you are far more likely to get someone
- 45:26Speaker 1: who's going to do what they're supposed to do. You know,
- 45:29Speaker 1: there's a there's thousands of times that I've had mercy
- 45:32Speaker 1: on somebody who didn't have a co signer, who didn't
- 45:35Speaker 1: have the collateral to get out of jail, but we
- 45:38Speaker 1: went ahead and just on their word when ahead and
- 45:40Speaker 1: let him out. I gotta tell you fifty of the
- 45:43Speaker 1: time they let me down because when there's no stake
- 45:46Speaker 1: in the game, when there's nobody on the hook for them,
- 45:49Speaker 1: they just don't go. They don't come to court. There's
- 45:52Speaker 1: no repercussion, there's no detorrent. They have no reason to
- 45:56Speaker 1: basically show up. You know, if they're poor, they're not
- 45:59Speaker 1: going to show anyway because they can't afford to find
- 46:01Speaker 1: that the court's going to give them. You know, they're
- 46:04Speaker 1: better off to stay on the run for as long
- 46:06Speaker 1: as they can. I mean, you know, we're really doing
- 46:08Speaker 1: damage to our society. And I did want to just
- 46:12Speaker 1: touch on the on the risk assessment tool that's that's
- 46:15Speaker 1: been kicked around here. I don't agree with the risk
- 46:18Speaker 1: assessment tool because of the way the risk assessment tool
- 46:21Speaker 1: has been programmed and has been put out there. The
- 46:25Speaker 1: people who are for this, the left, who are wanting
- 46:29Speaker 1: us to um you know, go with the hugg A
- 46:32Speaker 1: thug program. They do not want you to be able
- 46:35Speaker 1: to um asked. They don't want you to be able
- 46:39Speaker 1: to consider the current charge that they're being charged with,
- 46:43Speaker 1: and they don't want you to be able to look
- 46:45Speaker 1: at any of their past criminal history. Now you cannot
- 46:50Speaker 1: judge a person or you know, as as the judges
- 46:53Speaker 1: on the phone with us has said, you know, the
- 46:55Speaker 1: discretion comes from knowing how many times the person has
- 46:59Speaker 1: been arrested, how many times you've seen that person back
- 47:02Speaker 1: in your courtroom, and how many times they actually did
- 47:05Speaker 1: what you told them to do when you sentenced them
- 47:06Speaker 1: the first However, many times. That's why the judge's discretion
- 47:10Speaker 1: is so important. You cannot replace the criminal justice system,
- 47:16Speaker 1: uh discretion with a button that is not gonna work.
- 47:21Speaker 1: These are this is criminal behavior. This is people who
- 47:25Speaker 1: you know, do drugs and have altering and changing their mindset.
- 47:31Speaker 1: They change their name, they change their number, they change
- 47:35Speaker 1: two numbers in their social Security car, their social Security number,
- 47:39Speaker 1: and they think they've gotten away with something. I mean,
- 47:41Speaker 1: you know, it has taken us years. My husband is
- 47:44Speaker 1: almost forty years in the business and I'm just coming
- 47:46Speaker 1: over thirty. This is years and years and years of
- 47:50Speaker 1: profiling the criminal element that basically tells us who we
- 47:54Speaker 1: can and who we cannot get out of jail. Now
- 47:57Speaker 1: handing this over to somebody with a question questionnaire that
- 48:02Speaker 1: does not include have you ever been convicted before in
- 48:06Speaker 1: the past? Have you ever failed to appear in the past?
- 48:09Speaker 1: You know, what's the severity of the crime that you're
- 48:11Speaker 1: being charged with? Now? It is ludicrous to think that
- 48:15Speaker 1: that algorithm, that risk assessment tool is going to be
- 48:19Speaker 1: able to replace you know, the human touch, the human nature,
- 48:24Speaker 1: the people that are able to profile criminals for a
- 48:26Speaker 1: living and to be able to base their decision on
- 48:28Speaker 1: whether they one will reoffend, two will come back, or
- 48:32Speaker 1: three will harm someone. And those are the main questions
- 48:36Speaker 1: that need to be being asked. The risk assessment tool
- 48:39Speaker 1: is a joke. Now, if they come back with something better,
- 48:42Speaker 1: or they can make it better, then we would be
- 48:44Speaker 1: in a different place. But we're not. So since we're not,
- 48:48Speaker 1: we have to dis vigorously because otherwise all they're doing
- 48:52Speaker 1: is painting everybody with the same broad strokes, and everybody
- 48:55Speaker 1: should be released on minor crimes. You just can't do that.
- 49:00Speaker 1: It just doesn't make sense. Nancy, can I make a
- 49:02Speaker 1: coment here? Sure? And you know, Harrod, we they used
- 49:06Speaker 1: to talk about, you know, who shows up who doesn't
- 49:09Speaker 1: show up? Now, well, now we've got the facts. There
- 49:12Speaker 1: was this case in Harris County, Texas, and they've been
- 49:15Speaker 1: under an injunction. And now the proponents of all of
- 49:19Speaker 1: these reforms that say there's absolutely no difference in the
- 49:23Speaker 1: appearance rate and there should be no difference in the
- 49:26Speaker 1: impacts to the victims of crime have been shown horribly wrong.
- 49:31Speaker 1: A five percent failure to appear rate when people have
- 49:35Speaker 1: skin in the game, and a fifty percent failure to
- 49:40Speaker 1: appear rate. These are not me, Pully. This has been
- 49:43Speaker 1: now admitted into the record, and that's why the judges,
- 49:46Speaker 1: not the Burnsman, the judges in Harris County are fighting
- 49:50Speaker 1: this and are in fact fighting for this injunction. They're saying,
- 49:54Speaker 1: you're making a laughing stock of the entire criminal justice system.
- 49:58Speaker 1: We got fifty of the that in fact are being
- 50:02Speaker 1: denied justice, and then you're placing the burden right back
- 50:07Speaker 1: on the tax paying country to many of these law
- 50:10Speaker 1: enforcement agencies don't have the resources to do what they
- 50:13Speaker 1: currently do, much less chase down all of these misdemeanor offenders.
- 50:19Speaker 1: They're failing to appear. So what do you do? You
- 50:22Speaker 1: allow these people to roam and commit more clients. It
- 50:26Speaker 1: is absolutely insanity and the facts you're in well right now,
- 50:31Speaker 1: I think we all want what is best for the
- 50:34Speaker 1: system and what is best for innocent victims. Best Chapman,
- 50:38Speaker 1: reality star President of Professional Bill Agents of the US,
- 50:42Speaker 1: Jason Ocean's Ashley Willcott, Jennifer Skalski, and Scott Hall. Thank you,
- 50:48Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off