Judge in San Antonio sets cash bail - $1 - for jail inmate denied release by Abbott's order

A Bexar County public defender volunteered to pay the $1 cash bail he obtained Wednesday for a client, getting her out of jail in a still-unresolved challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott’s pandemic order that denies early release for violent offenders. Michael Young applied for a writ of habeas corpus to release Janie Villeda, who had assaulted her mother. Abbott’s order had kept her jailed past May 24, when in ordinary times she would have been freed with credit for time served and good behavior. Young challenged the constitutionality of Abbott’s order, which suspended state laws on March 29, 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic arrived and local officials were trying to lower jail populations. The order prevented them from issuing personal bonds for anyone accused or previously convicted of a violent crime, and prohibited early release for the same kinds of offenders serving sentences for misdemeanors.

That included Villeda as of January, when she was sentenced after violating the terms of the deferred adjudication probation she had earlier received for the assault. At Wednesday’s hearing, Young asked state District Judge Ron Rangel to rule that Executive Order GA-13 does not bind Texas judges or sheriffs. Rangel stopped short of that, giving the Texas Attorney General’s Office 45 days to respond, but set cash bail of $1 for Villeda in the meantime. If the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office can identify people “in similar circumstances” who they agree should be released, Rangel said, he would consider granting them the same $1 bail. A call and an email to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office were not answered. At least two other judges, in Harris and Travis counties, have found Abbott’s order unconstitutional and Paxton’s office has not appealed those decisions, Young said. “Why is it important for the sheriff to award good time? His jail is full, and it places their safety in question if he can’t manage his jail as the Constitution intended,” Young told the court.