A Community Bailout Leads to a Historic Victory

In February of 2021, when we bailed out 20-year-old Glenn from Smith County Jail, we could never have imagined the historic trajectory of his story. 

Glenn was arrested during the winter holidays in 2020 while driving with his friends through Tyler, on his way home to Louisiana. He was charged with the alleged possession of a marijuana derivative (a vape pen) and held on a $1,500 bond.

Glenn sat in a cage for 115 days without an indictment or a single court appearance. In the entire time he was caged, not once did he hear from his court appointed attorney. Finally, a jailer took pity on him during Winter Storm Uri and called us for help.

Dalila, our advocate in Tyler, bailed him out, bought him dinner and provided him with essentials and funds to travel back to his grandmother’s home in Louisiana.

Later that year, Glenn came back to Texas to provide vital testimony to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on bail reform legislation. 

Glenn was one of dozens of indigent people whom we bailed out in 2021 through our community bail fund.

Prior to this hearing, Texas Fair Defense Project (TFDP) had helped Glenn file a malpractice suit against his attorney. Glenn received a summary judgment in that lawsuit.  

On June 20th of this year, we witnessed a landmark hearing in Glenn’s civil lawsuit in the Eastern District Federal Court in Tyler, TX.  Our dear friends and allies at TFDP argued for damages in the Eastern District Federal court where Glenn was awarded $450,000 by a jury in Smith county.

Our teammate Dalila served as a crucial witness in that hearing along with all the documentation that we had gathered during Glenn’s bailout.

Glenn’s story is not an outlier. He is one of hundreds of thousands of indigent people who are rendered invisible and powerless by the criminal punishment system.

Forgotten by their court appointed attorneys and forced to take plea deals even if they’re innocent, we often wonder how many Glenns are out there…waiting for someone to believe in them.

Glenn’s story inspires us to keep pushing for an end to our two-tiered cash bail system which punishes people for being poor.