"I’ll Give Whatever I Have"—The Moment a Father Lost the Battle

[00:00:00]trying to figure out a way to see if the court would allow him to post maybe a lower amount for bond.

[00:00:05]>> It scares me to let him out.

[00:00:08]It scares me to let him out. He's repeatedly shown us that he refuses to comply with bond conditions. If I let him out, what's going to happen? Is he going to pick up a fourth?

[00:00:22]>> No.

[00:00:23]>> Well, I know you're going to say no, but history tells us otherwise.

[00:00:26]>> Watch how Judge Fleischer handles every parent's worst nightmare.

[00:00:31]This heartbroken father is willing to pay anything to get his son out of jail, but the judge refuses to budge.

[00:00:39]What follows is a tense, emotional battle between a father's love and public safety.

[00:00:45]>> Okay, do you speak English?

[00:00:46]>> Yes, yes. Come on in.

[00:00:49]They can all come up.

[00:00:50]>> Yeah, all y'all come in.

[00:00:52]>> Y'all come up.

[00:00:53]The more the merrier.

[00:01:00]Thank you for coming.

[00:01:02]Thank you for coming.

[00:01:04]I wish it were under better circumstances.

[00:01:06]Um and I'm sorry that you guys are having to come here and deal with this, but better now than 6 ft under in a pine box, right?

[00:01:18]Um we've had a lot of issues with him.

[00:01:23]And I think that I don't know I mean, I guess you realize the you know, in the spiel that I give to everybody is that watch the news, which I hope you do, every day someone dies in Harris County from a DWI. Every single day. We, in Harris County, lead the na- Shh.

[00:01:46]We lead >> Hold all conversations.

[00:01:48]>> We lead the nation in DWI fatalities because it happens so much. Is it because we have 4 million people here? I don't know. Is it because Harris County is 3 hours from one side of the other? I don't know.

[00:02:01]But that's that's what it is. And it's it's disgusting.

[00:02:06]And what scares me with him is he has three open DWIs in three different counties.

[00:02:15]That is extremely scary. And we are lucky that no one has been injured.

[00:02:24]A life has not been taken because it could have gone so much worse.

[00:02:31]The reason that it's taking as long as it is is because you he does not have I'm presuming he doesn't have a lawyer in Nueces, right?

[00:02:38]>> At this time that's correct, Your Honor.

[00:02:39]>> If you guys are able to get a lawyer for him down there, hopefully that can speed up the process to get everything working because here in Harris County we have so many cases, we have so many people in custody that we move it like crazy. We we're very very fast.

[00:02:57]We're fast-moving criminal justice system here. Fort Bend is building their way up to being as big as we are, so they're a little bit slower. But in the other counties in like Brazos and in Nueces, Corsicana, and they do a lot things a lot slower. So if you pick up a case, you may not go to court for 6 to 8 months.

[00:03:19]And then you start dealing with it.

[00:03:22]It looks like that's what's happening over there.

[00:03:26]>> Did let the family know that even though they don't have a court date yet in Nueces, getting a lawyer down there they can talk to the DA and they can start working on the case and talking to him myself and the Fort Bend lawyer trying to get a global deal done prior to the court date being rescheduled. Because I mean the case is open and pending and it's it's there. So, um that's where we are for now, but I think I think the bond in Harris County is is the only thing keeping him from going home to his family. Um and so we're trying to figure out a way to see if the court would allow him to post maybe a lower amount for bond.

[00:04:02]>> It scares me to let him out.

[00:04:05]It scares me to let him out. He's repeatedly shown us that he refuses to comply with bond conditions. If I let him out, what's going to happen? Is he going to pick up a fourth?

[00:04:19]>> No.

[00:04:20]>> Well, I know you're going to say no, but history tells us otherwise.

[00:04:23]>> Sam, but I feel assured I see where you're going with that. But my son is 21-year-old kid. He's still a kid to me.

[00:04:29]And he's he messed up three times. Yes, he did. But he's ready to come out and and and do right with society and what he's supposed to He's going to come out and live with me. He was out there living in Corpus because he he's he's turning to a wilder.

[00:04:41]And I never agreed with that with him. I told my son, "I don't like that for you." I'm going to rip him a contract.

[00:04:46]He's going to be living under my house.

[00:04:47]And he's going to be staying with me.

[00:04:49]And I will be giving him a ride to wherever I need to take him to to get his stuff straight.

[00:04:54]That's that's that's what I have and that's what I want for him and I know that's what he wants, too.

[00:04:59]He's not a bad kid like that. He's not like we're writing him off to be.

[00:05:03]And I see your position and I cuz you cuz you tell me about, you know, all these intoxicants and stuff. But that's not my son.

[00:05:10]Twice he's caught. He was parked.

[00:05:12]150 times they tell you that hey, that you're going to you have probably going to kill somebody. You know, he Those 150 times he's got two. He decided to stop and pull over and didn't He didn't He didn't crash with anybody.

[00:05:25]Yes, he got caught three times. But he's ready to not ever drink again.

[00:05:28]>> times has he not been caught?

[00:05:32]>> He's he's young. He hadn't been drinking. He He hadn't been drinking till 21.

[00:05:37]Cuz he left and he was living on his own. He was living in my house. He didn't want to He didn't want to be here at in my house anymore cuz he he went out there to work.

[00:05:46]But he you know, him he's being a young kid he lost his girlfriend that we had a cousin of his commit a suicide. So, he got he had a lot of stuff going on in his head.

[00:05:56]But but now he's this is real to him.

[00:05:59]And he's he's learned his lesson.

[00:06:01]He's ready to be out here and he's going to he needs to come out here and start working. He's going to work for me. And he's going to make money to pay for all this mess that he got himself into.

[00:06:09]Right now we're we're we're paying the price.

[00:06:11]>> He's in there. Why are you paying the price?

[00:06:13]>> Well, we're paying the price upon him.

[00:06:15]Because because he's he's my son.

[00:06:19]And I'll give whatever I have to to to to to get him out of there.

[00:06:23]Sorry. I really am. It He's not like the I mean I I don't want to He's not like all these other people, man. I'm I'm sorry. My kid's not like that.

[00:06:36]He's not a drug addict. He doesn't abuse any anything else. He messed up with with the alcohol, being too young and not knowing what to do.

[00:06:42]>> How do you know?

[00:06:43]How do you know?

[00:06:45]>> I just know it. I know my son.

[00:06:48]He was living with me for a long time.

[00:06:50]That's how I know him.

[00:06:50]>> And and I understand and I respect it looking through the eyes of a father.

[00:06:56]I get this a lot.

[00:06:57]But when you have three DWIs in three different counties, judges have told you repeatedly what you can and what you can't do, and you repeatedly flaunt that and and just don't. And you have shown us repeatedly you're going to do whatever you want to do regardless of what a judge tells you.

[00:07:19]And I know that that's not what you want to hear and I'm sorry.

[00:07:22]Cuz I don't like to keep people in jail, but my only concern my only concern is public safety.

[00:07:30]You know?

[00:07:31]And I know that you don't like to hear it and it pains me to do it as a father myself as well.

[00:07:37]But I don't know how to get him to realize that when you don't abide by court orders this is what happens. And >> You judge you read people you see people you see my son.

[00:07:58]Of course see him and and and and and I'm telling you he he's not going to do this again.

[00:08:03]It's we want a lot of stuff we're trying to get him to start working so he can work for me and he start paying for his stuff. He does no good for anyone in there.

[00:08:12]I mean it does no good to anyone for anyone in there.

[00:08:14]>> But it does though. Protects the public.

[00:08:22]What I'd like to do is we've had him TASC, right? Okay. So what [clears throat] we do is I have clinicians on staff who evaluate him and tell us what the proper course of action is.

[00:08:38]We've had our clinicians evaluate him and What that is is that it's a treatment facility that kind of like a a long-term rehab type facility where it teaches him how to deal with the issues, cope and not use alcohol as um a way to cope as a coping mechanism.

[00:09:05]After he does that rehab, we have him going into sober court which is a long-term a two an 18-month program that supervises him by one of the actual judges here that keeps him under their wing and meets with them on a two times a month where he would come to court, meet with them to ensure that he's on the straight and narrow.

[00:09:30]Um while he's with me now I can pay for it.

[00:09:36]If he's on the outside, I can't pay for anything.

[00:09:43]>> Is that program was other >> Right. And unfortunately, you know, we want to do that, but I can't do anything until those other two cases are resolved.

[00:09:52]>> [clears throat] >> The idea what Will had was to you've got a lawyer in Fort Bend.

[00:09:58]You have to get a lawyer in Nueces. Once you do that, we can work together all as one unit to resolve all the cases at once.

[00:10:07]And then we get him into this program and hopefully the other counties will see it that this is what we want to do.

[00:10:12]We've got a long-term solution to help him keep sobriety.

[00:10:17]And It's okay.

[00:10:23]>> Ma'am, does that mean that he has to be incarcerated during the entire >> It's an in- it's an inpatient treatment facility, correct.

[00:10:30]>> You would you would go from custody in jail here straight to the treatment facility, so he wouldn't be incarcerated, but he would not be released in between. He would go straight to the >> It's And it's not too terribly long.

[00:10:40]It's around a 6-month program, 6 to 8 it's 6 if you respond well.

[00:10:45]And after that, we let them out. And it's an aftercare um program where he meets with us. He literally meets with the judge two times a month to ensure that he's on the you know, he's doing well. And if he does well, he gets rewarded throughout the program. They help him get his license back.

[00:11:06]You know, help him job searches. So, it's a really rewarding program. And the idea is to get him to recognize it at a young early age now before it spirals out of control at a later date or either that or before you do some catastrophic damage where you're now ending up with a 40-year 50-year sentence.

[00:11:27]And that's the goal.

[00:11:29]>> The The treatment facility is called SATF. SATF that acronym? SATF?

[00:11:34]>> Yeah, it's Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, SATF.

[00:11:36]>> And that's good.

[00:11:37]>> But you can't until New Oasis is on board as well.

[00:11:43]>> I'll talk to the family more, Judge.

[00:11:44]>> I mean, you You want to You want to use all this money to get him out of jail.

[00:11:50]He needs a lawyer over there.

[00:11:52]The money, instead of getting him out, probably be better spent with the lawyer in New Oasis, so that we can work all together to find a great resolution.

[00:12:05]Not just getting him out and hope hope he does well.

[00:12:09]We have the tools, and I can pay for everything for you. It's a $30,000 program that I'm willing to pay for you.

[00:12:16]Not to mention aftercare, which is probably another 15,000. So, we are footing the bill for everything.

[00:12:23]But I can't do that if he's on the outside.

[00:12:30]I know that it's not the answer that you want to hear, but it may be a blessing in disguise.

[00:12:37]You know, work with me. I'm I want what's best for your son. We're not here just to throw away the key. We don't want to do that. We want to help him.

[00:12:45]Sometimes it's better in the long term to sit in there, get him in the facility, than to just put him out and throw him out there in the wolves and hope that hopes that he does well.

[00:13:01]Okay.

[00:13:02]>> He's going to talk to the family more, Judge.

[00:13:04]>> Okay.

[00:13:08]>> All right.