Houston Chronicle by Samantha Ketterer and St. John Barned-Smith Aug. 28, 2020
Defense attorneys group files complaint against District Judge Ramona Franklin over bond revocation
Since November, eight defendants fresh out of jail on bond have walked into state District Judge Ramona Franklin’s court and been sent right back to jail.
Instead of standing for a routine court hearing in a first step in their criminal court cases, they ended up back in sheriff’s custody after Franklin revoked their bail and ordered them back behind bars, sometimes with no lawyer present for the defendant.
Defense attorneys say Franklin revoked their bonds without notice or cause, some of them without legal representation. They argue the process is illegal, in a judicial complaint filed earlier this week with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
“The practice she is engaging in is very unusual,†said Amanda Peters, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston who teaches criminal procedure. “I’ve never seen a judge revoke a bond and then set a higher one if a defendant didn’t violate a condition of bond.â€
In some cases, she has ordered defendants who’d posted bond be held without bail, a move defense attorneys say is a clear violation of their clients’ constitutional rights.
State law mandates that judges need to give the defendant “reasonable notice†that they intend to deny bail and allow “meaningful opportunity to be heard.â€
“Each of these defendants appeared in court and had no notice of what was about to take place,†the defense lawyers said in the complaint. “No notice that Judge Franklin intended to revoke their bonds. No notice that Judge Franklin intended to deny them bail.â€
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Defense-attorneys-group-files-complaint-against-15524776.php
