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00:00Eric Luis Gonzalez.
00:14Speak English.
00:15You were charged with driving while intoxicated, you're facing up to six months in jail and
00:21or $2,000 fine.
00:22We're going to do probable cause you have the right to remain silent, anything you say
00:26can and will be used against you.
00:28You have the right to have an attorney present if you cannot afford one, one will be appointed
00:30to you, sir.
00:31Okay.
00:32On September 19, 2024, an officer was dispatched to assist a firefighter call at 100 block
00:41of Delano Street in Harris County, Texas.
00:44The witness and firefighter Paul Dean stated that the defendant was asleep behind the wheel
00:48at the stop sign of the 100 block of Delano Street.
00:53The witness tried waking the defendant up and tried to pull him off from the scene and
00:58then came to a stop with other firefighters blocked his path.
01:02The officer observed a mild odor of alcohol, glassy eyes, glassy bloodshot eyes and swaying.
01:09The defendant stated that he was coming from an Airbnb downtown and had nothing to drink
01:14all day.
01:15Standard field sobriety tests were conducted and the officers observed six out of six signs
01:20for the horizontal gaze and stagnus test, six out of eight clues for walk and turn
01:27and three out of four for one leg stand.
01:29The defendant declined to provide a sample of his breath and a blood search warrant was
01:35executed.
01:36I need to be honest.
01:39Um, yes, sir.
01:43So it looks like he had, or it looks like there was a DWI slash open container that's
01:49currently pending in Fort Bend and another one from this year, what's pending in, kidding?
01:58This is his third open DWI?
02:00Yes.
02:01And then it looks like the, of the second one is in Waces.
02:08You really have two other open DWIs?
02:10Holy moly, mother.
02:14Oh, oh, oh.
02:17You got a PR bond on this case.
02:19Guess what I'm doing to that PR bond?
02:23Guess how high I'm making your bond now, Mr. Gonzalez?
02:27Yeah, probably $50,000, dude.
02:30You have two other open DWIs?
02:33You've not picked up another DWI?
02:36I'm revoking your bond and I'm now setting it at $50,000.
02:42And I'm going to tell you now, if you get out of custody, you will have such strict
02:48conditions that if you violate this thing, I'm going to light you up like a freaking
02:52Christmas tree.
02:53You were not allowed to drive whatsoever.
02:56You will be signing an affidavit with me today, Mr. Gonzalez.
03:00If I find that you drive, I will have a contempt hearing.
03:03And every time you drive, I can put you in jail up to six months and I can stack it.
03:09Do you understand?
03:14He really has two open other DWIs.
03:27Home confinement if he gets out.
03:30GPS monitor prior to release.
03:40Can you file interlock before, please?
03:43You're not allowed to drive any vehicle whatsoever.
03:47And did he have an interlock on this car now?
03:51Because he's probably ordered to have one.
03:54So he has two open DWIs in two other counties now.
03:56We'll just defend a judge.
03:58Gonzalez.
03:59They gave him a PR bond in this case, ixnay on the PR bond A. And I'm actually going to
04:05make it extremely high as well because that's, you know, Mr. Gonzalez, if you have a drug
04:13and alcohol problem, you better address it because if you don't, I'm going to do it for
04:17you.
04:18I don't know.
04:19Baloney.
04:20Programs.
04:21I believe you.
04:22Sometimes you start looking a little bit too late and you do catastrophic damage.
04:35I'm now going to intervene so that that doesn't happen.
04:38All right.
04:39I'm going to have you come up here, swear to us that you're not going to drive and then
04:44I'm taking you into custody.
04:45He goes with you.
04:46Don't send him down, though.
04:47Please.
04:48I need him to really, I need him to sign condition.
04:49What you said, right?
04:50Yes.
04:51Good morning, Miss Smallwood.
04:52How's jail?
04:53Wow.
05:13You have been a very busy person.
05:17Let's go through your stuff.
05:19So at the outset, it looks like you're wanted out of state for one reason or the other.
05:24I have no idea.
05:26I know you're going to tell me it's all gumdrops, tulips and little bunnies jumping, right?
05:31But how I get to know you is how you look on paper, right?
05:36What I see now, you have a credit card abuse that's open, a felony credit card abuse, a
05:42felony theft, 2,500, two or more times open, a felony fraud, another credit card abuse
05:50open, another credit card abuse open, another felony theft open, an aggravated robbery.
05:58Is that it?
06:03And then what else you got open out of state?
06:05She has two types of properties.
06:08No kidding.
06:14What would you like?
06:15I understand and I see it, but she's got a lot of skin in the game.
06:26She's got about, I don't even know how many thousands of dollars of bonds on felonies
06:31that she's made and technically Alabama is just fine with us.
06:40Realistically we don't want Alabama to spend the money to come get her.
06:44She's going to put up her own money and you know what?
06:46She's going to have not only this bond, she's going to have all those other bonds up in
06:50the air and so she's got a lot on the line and we discussed that.
06:56Now the failure to appear, judge I know just one more argument, was only because she was
07:02in jail here.
07:03She was keeping up with the Alabama case.
07:04It does not bode well, the number of cases and types of charges, of course not.
07:10But she technically, it was not really a failure to appear, it was just she couldn't vote.
07:15She has been keeping up with it.
07:17Her family is very invested in helping her and got a lot of financial investment.
07:23And as a side note, I mean she's been feeling it.
07:25Her sister got shot in the face, 20-year-old sister shot in the face and she had her funeral
07:31yesterday and she missed it.
07:32So she understands like what's been going on and she's feeling it.
07:38My sister died.
07:39My little sister.
07:40That sucks.
07:41Her boyfriend shot her in the face.
07:43So she's very, you know, I'm not speaking for you, but is this something where you are
07:47committed?
07:49And she understands if she doesn't go within 14 days, it's not just this bond, it's everything.
08:00This is, she has an open aggravated robbery of over 65 or disabled.
08:08So do I venture a guess that that is allegedly probably taking care of an elderly and she
08:17takes a bunch of credit cards and uses them?
08:19Is that?
08:20I would have to see if that would make a lot of sense.
08:24But Judge, she also has similar history in other states within the last few years as
08:28well.
08:29So we wouldn't feel comfortable releasing her on bond.
08:32We have concerns that she would be a danger to the community if we did so.
08:37I think so too, Ms. Smallwood.
08:42You have repeatedly shown to us that you don't care about our public.
08:49You don't care about our bond conditions.
08:53And that is evidenced by your 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 open cases here where you have been
09:02filed on in multiple dates.
09:05And you also have multiple offenses in Alabama.
09:13And then you have similar offenses in another state.
09:17So essentially, you are playing hopscotch with the states with criminality.
09:23And you want me to give you a bond, really?
09:29I would like hair, but I'm not gonna get it.
09:34That's just a sad fact of life.
09:36Like here, it's also a sad fact of life.
09:38I'm not giving you a bond, because if I let you out, what's gonna happen?
09:44Historically speaking, every two months you pick up a case.
09:48So if I let you out in two months, you're gonna pick up another case.
09:51I don't want that to happen.
09:53Sometimes we have to protect people from their own selves.
09:56You are your own worst enemy.
09:59And now I'm gonna protect you from yourself.
10:03I'm not giving you a bond.
10:07I can't trade.
10:08You know what I mean?
10:13And not only that, all the money she's posted here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, $60,000 bond.
10:26Whose money is that?
10:31All these are credit card abuse cases.
10:32She's getting money from somewhere, some other place.
10:35No, sorry, man.
10:39You're staying with me.
10:42Just let Alabama know that I'm not, so that they can come get her.
10:47The good news is, is that you've made bond on these cases.
10:49So we now give Alabama 14 days to come get you.
10:52If they don't come get you, then they'll file a dismissal.
10:58Or has she waived?
10:59She has waived.
11:00What date did she waive?
11:01September 25th.
11:03Yeah, so you have actually 13 days.
11:07No way, Ms. Smallwood.
11:08It's time to pay the pipe.
11:12Betrayer.
11:13Thank you for your tenacity.
11:18Good morning, Mr. Matthews.
11:26Mr. Matthews, you're charged with reckless driving.
11:28You're facing up to 30 days in jail and or a $500 fine.
11:31we are going to do probable cause. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say cannot
11:35will be used against you. You have the right to have an attorney present. If you cannot afford one,
11:38one will be appointed to you, sir. It's 251-7072. That's an old case.
11:50On June 22, 2024, at approximately 2 a.m., an officer observed a wrecker who ran a red light
12:07causing a U-Haul truck to suddenly stop and avoid a collision. Officers had to make a U-turn and
12:13speed up to 100 miles per hour to catch up with the driver but could not catch up with him. The
12:18wrecker was called in and was identified by his Texas driver's license when he responded to
12:23another police officer on the scene. This is for reckless driving rights. So it just says that
12:34I guess the driver ran a red light and caused a U-Haul truck to try to avoid colliding with
12:41the driver when he ran the red light. So the officer made a U-turn to catch up with the driver.
12:46But I mean, I don't know. Take a seat in the jury box. I'm not ready yet.
13:00So this is Mr. Matthews, right? So in this case, he's charged with reckless driving.
13:06But when I think of a reckless driving case, in what we normally see, it's something where
13:14someone they're doing doughnuts, they're weaving in and out of traffic,
13:18driving like a bat out of hell, right? At 100 miles an hour, you know, they're just,
13:27what's something else that we see besides just doughnuts?
13:30You know, so in this case, what I see, we have someone that runs a red light, right?
13:37And then someone has to make an evasive maneuver. Is that reckless driving? Is it an accident?
13:47Do you have the specific intent that's required for a reckless driving? Because
13:52it's a specific intent crime, right? Do you, is this within the spirit of
14:02reckless driving, right? You know, we all have accidents where we run a red light.
14:08And of course, we narrowly avoid a collision, you know, and is that what happened here?
14:14But yet he charges the reckless driving.
14:16So, Judge, I just looked at the charging document, the information here,
14:20the information itself alleges that he ran multiple red lights.
14:24Okay, well, that's something different then. That's something different. If you're telling
14:28me he's blown through multiple red lights and acting like that's completely different.
14:31That's what the information says. May I check the offer?
14:36But when you, when we initially did probable cause, it was like, okay,
14:39he ran through a red light. Someone else had to make an evasive maneuver.
14:43If you're telling me he's blowing through multiple red lights, then I have a problem.
14:50Yeah, Judge, this is multiple red lights. Never saw the tow truck slow down.
14:53This is a hundred mile an hour chase, watching this driver crash and go through multiple red
15:00lights. People trying to stop to avoid colliding with this guy.
15:02Is he driving a reckless truck?
15:03Yes, Judge, this is a reckless truck. This is reckless driving in my opinion.
15:09I'm warning you not to drive. I'm taking away your privacy driving.
15:13I want you to know that. And if I find that you drive, I will have a contempt hearing.
15:17You'll be looking at 180 days in jail and $500 fine every time you drive a car.
15:23Do you understand, Mr. Matthews?
15:53I'm finding probable cause in your case. And as part of your bond condition,
16:11I'm ordering you not to drive any vehicle for any reason. If I find that you do,
16:15not only can I have a contempt hearing, I will revoke your bond and I'm going to erase it.
16:20I will do everything in my power to protect this community. And I've seen how
16:27people treat our roads. And it's a damn shame because every day someone is dying on our roads
16:32and it's something that's just absolutely avoidable. And it's such a shame. It really is.
16:41Can you file conditions for that, please? Just no driving.
16:43I'm not going to. This is not a negotiation. I'm just telling you what the bond condition
16:49is and that's it. So what I'm going to have you do is I'm going to have you swear to this
16:53that you're not going to drive. After that, I'm going to have you go to Victoria. We will have
16:56you sign a reset and then we're going to get you out of here. You need a lawyer to represent you in
17:00this. Because I haven't, I have not worked since then. I have not had a job because I'm a record
17:09judge. My IDs have already been revoked. I cannot work. Does he have a driver's license, please?
17:24Can you run his license? How do you support yourself now, Mr. Matthews?
17:36As of July, my licenses were revoked because traffic division at Harris County,
17:42she doesn't, she does not play that. And also all of those details.
17:48I don't need to know everything about you. I just, all I want to know is how do you support yourself?
17:55Do you have a Texas driver's license?
18:00Judge, we've ran the driver's license at least on our LCIC database. We don't have any records
18:04for a driver's license. I see a number, but there might be some discrepancy in the system.
18:09LCIC does not show anything for his license. But I could be wrong because there is a number
18:16listed there. So that leads me to believe that there may be one.
18:19How have you been supporting yourself, Mr. Matthews? How do you get money?
18:22When is the last time you totally, you know, worked?
18:25That night.
18:30This has been since June. This case has been open since June.
18:33Yes, sir. That following that.
18:36How have you supported yourself for the last three months?
18:38I've completed my savings account.
18:42How much money do you have in your savings accounts?
18:44Nothing.
18:46Who do you live with?
18:48My wife and my children.
18:50What does your wife do?
18:52She has a job. She works from home.
18:54Doing what?
18:56She works online.
19:02I'll send you home with an application now, and I'll take a look at it when you come back.
19:06As it stands now, Mr. Matthews, don't drive.
19:14As it stands now, Mr. Matthews, don't drive.
19:16Don't drive whatsoever for any reason.
19:18If you drive here, you cannot drive home.
19:20Do you understand?
19:22You might get an application.
19:24I'm going to have you swear to this.
19:26We'll have you take your seat in the jury box.
19:28We'll get your bond conditions, and then we'll send you on your way.
19:30When you come back, fill it out, and I'll take a look at it.
19:32But I need to know everything about you.
19:34What kind of cars you have.
19:36How many cars you have.
19:38What kind of salary she makes.
19:40Expenses you have.
19:42I need to know everything about you.
19:44And if you qualify, I'll appoint you a lawyer, but I need to know everything about you.
19:46If you come back and put all zeros, I'm going to send you right back out.
19:48Because it's just not true.
19:50Do you understand?
19:52Okay.
19:54Come on.