HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - "In my 25 years, I've never seen a system go down like this," said criminal defense attorney Emily Detoto.The system in question is called Jweb.
It's what prosecutors use for criminal cases.RELATED: More Criminal District Court judges lowering bond amounts for accused murderersIn the order, Magistrate Courtney St.
Julian states, "The court finds Jweb was not operational from March 24 at around 7 p.m. until March 26 at around 9 p.m. More than 280 in custody have not received a probable cause hearing.""Which means that 280 to around 300 people were sitting in the Harris County Jail without having seen a magistrate," Detoto said.Law requires defendants receive a probable cause hearing within 48 hours.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM OUR ONGOING SERIES: BREAKING BONDIn her ruling, the magistrate points out, "Due to the insurmountable backlog, more than 280 defendants be released from jail."Many defendants got personal recognizance bonds."And per the court's order, some people that were accused of a crime under a certain statute that their bonds be set at $10,000 immediately if they had a prior criminal history or not," said Detoto.And it didn't matter if the charge was burglary or murder.
Everyone was apparently released with no bond conditions."None of the people who were released are really under any conditions," said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers.