Texas choose prompts outrage over bond for suspected cop killer

Texans are outraged after a “rogue” choose set bond for a capital homicide suspect who’s accused of killing a Houston-area deputy simply sooner or later after his co-defendant, one other capital homicide suspect, was launched on bail. 

Former Harris County District Legal professional Kim Ogg slammed Choose Hilary Unger throughout “Fox & Associates” for offering a pathway for launch for suspect Ronnie Palmer, who was charged in reference to the demise of Deputy Fernando Esqueda in July 2024.

“Our judges, sadly, in Harris County, have proven a sample of releasing repeat violent offenders amongst us,” Ogg instructed Lawrence Jones on Friday. 

“Proper now, there are greater than 830 fugitives or people on bond for capital homicide or homicide, however LJ, none for the homicide of a police officer. It is a first for us.”

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Unger set Palmer’s bond at $3 million on Thursday, in line with a court docket doc shared by the Harris County Deputies’ Group (HCDO). Palmer has been in jail since July with no bond on that cost till now.

He’s additionally going through two counts of aggravated assault with a lethal weapon in Esqueda’s demise. Bond for these fees is about at $50,000 every.

Although Palmer stays in jail as of Thursday, he now has the chance to publish bail and return to the streets.

Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Fernando Esqueda in uniform in entrance of a US flag on this portrait supplied by the sheriff. Esqueda was shot and killed within the line of obligation in July 2024. (Harris County Sheriff)

This comes on the heels of the discharge of the opposite suspect in Esqueda’s homicide, Dremone Francis, who was launched to deal with arrest after he posted the $1 million bond set in November 2024.

Along with his capital homicide cost, Francis had beforehand been convicted of producing and delivering medication. He additionally had his probation “unsatisfactorily terminated” in 2022.

Unger, whose obligation is to set bonds in circumstances like these, ought to have set the quantity larger to keep away from compromising public security, Ogg argued.

“Sadly, Choose Hilary Unger is a rogue choose and infamous for releasing repeat offenders who exit and kill different members of our group,” she mentioned. 

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Following blowback from the group, a protection legal professional instructed FOX 26 Houston on Thursday that Unger was not concerned in setting bond for Francis, regardless of the Houston Police Officers’ Union and the HCDO saying that she was.

“They made it very troublesome for the choose as a result of she is just not the one who had set the bond,” mentioned Cheryl Irvin. “The bond was set and no person objected to it from the district legal professional’s workplace from the earlier administration.”

Native retailers reported that the State of Texas filed for a proof-evident listening to when Francis was arrested in July 2024, which might’ve made no bond an possibility. That listening to was imagined to occur inside 10 days, however because it did not, Francis grew to become eligible for bond and his legal professional requested it’s set. It is not clear why the state didn’t proceed with the listening to.

Regardless, Houston Police Officers’ Union President Douglas Griffith insisted Unger might have taken further measures to maintain the group secure. 

“He had a number of bonds. He is out of a prolonged prison historical past. She might have held him. There is no such thing as a compelled mechanism to not maintain him in jail. It is utterly as much as her,” he mentioned throughout “Fox & Associates First,” arguing the choose has had a historical past of releasing violent offenders on bond.

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“When these guys do not come to court docket as a result of it is a capital homicide case, then we will be compelled to go on the market and get them once more, after which they will gun down one other officer,” he continued. “There have been 42 rounds fired at Deputy Esqueda. These are violent offenders. We’re going to see them once more within the headlines of the information, and it is all going to be on this choose’s again.”

Unger, who’s up for re-election in 2026, campaigned beforehand on prioritizing “options to incarceration with an eye fixed in direction of rehabilitation, a discount in recidivism, and a rise in group security,” in line with her marketing campaign web site.

Fox Information Digital has reached out to the Harris County District Legal professional’s Workplace and the 248th District Courtroom for remark.

Fox Information’ Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.