Nearly 30% of Bexar County defendants bailed out by Texas Organizing Project rearrested in same case

From KSAT: Nearly 30% of Bexar County defendants bonded out by the Texas Organizing Project as part of its bail program were later taken back into custody in the same case, records obtained by KSAT Investigates show.

Other defendants bailed out by the prominent Texas political advocacy group were later accused in more serious criminal cases, the records show.

Since the fall of 2022, TOP has bonded out defendants in Bexar County charged with crimes including felony vehicle theft, felony hit and run causing serious bodily injury or death and felony family violence.

Other defendants were bailed out on lesser charges, including DWI, failure to ID and criminal trespassing, records show.

TOP’s efforts through its Right2Justice program faced intense scrutiny late last year, after a defendant it bonded out in a 2022 family violence case, Shane James, was accused of killing six people, including his parents, in a multi-county murder spree.

Defendants in at least 196 cases bonded out by TOP since October 2022

The advocacy group has previously said publicly it created its Right2Justice program to counter a bail system that disproportionately targets low-income Black and Latino Texans.

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