April Aguirre - Crime Victim Advocate Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, that's old school, that's the way it used to be.
Doesn't feel that way anymore, does. It feels like the
victims are the criminals, and the criminals are painted as
the victims, and it's all upside down so much so
that you really need laws in order to try to
prevent these judges, these liberal, progressive judges, from just letting

(00:22):
people out constantly on pr bonds and not even taking
into consideration the fact that they've got a rap sheet
in an arm and a half long. One of the bills,
as we mentioned, Joscelyn's law fell short on the third reading,
ninety seven votes in favor of forty against three votes
shia two thirds supermajority that was needed. Joscelyn's law would

(00:43):
require judges to deny build individuals accused of violent felonies
if they had previously been convicted of or were of
unbail for similar offenses. That seems like a no brainer, right,
Not enough of a no brainer, evidently, April L. Gary
joined us. She's a crime victims advocate. April very disappointing
to say the least, absolutely, but.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's also very telling of the climate and the legislature
and why it's so important to fulfill these seeds, not
necessarily with Republican people, with people that have common sense,
so they're the true profit of the future's gauging the past.
So we are not going after the Walmart shoplister, right,

(01:25):
We're going after people that have committed heinous acts. And
that they don't want to hold these people accountable that
have a previous conviction is really absurd to me.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I wonder this April, because, as you know, the state
legislature gets lobbied. Harris County alone spends five million dollars
lobbying the state legislature. Is that where we can point
the finger on this who's lobbying in Austin to prevent
a bill like this from passing?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
This is the thing. It's a individual I like that
official here did not half support for this bill publicly,
then they're most likely against it privately. We do not
hold our elected officials as accountable as we should. And
unfortunately they just wasn't a big enough push. We needed
twelve demobracks on each film. Right. I really think that

(02:18):
this has to do with the fact that school choice
passed and they were very upset about that. They took
it out on Texan. That's they took it out on.
There's a very small percentage of criminals that prey on
the population, and they do not want to hold those
people accountable. Their sympathies are with them and not with
potential crime victims in past crime victims.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
The other bill was sent it Joint Resolution Number one,
which would have denied bil to illegal aliens accused of
certain violent crimes. That also failed, only got eighty seven
votes in favor thirty nine against, well below the one
hundred votes required in the one hundred and fifty member house.
That was also filed as Jocelyn's Law. It's mind boggling

(02:59):
to me that her name isn't engraved into every lawmaker's
mind when considering something like this. When you know what
happened to Joshlyn Nungary, how can you possibly say no
to these bills?

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Listen as a climate the advocate, I prioritize parents of
murdered children. We can't help everybody, but we try to
help the parents of murdered children because that's every human's
worst nightmare, to lose their child. I had to break
the news to her while she was making preparations for

(03:34):
the funeral home for her daughter, that she would have
to go to court because there was a potential that
these individuals were going, well, they're going to get bonds,
we just didn't know how low. And the judge on
the bench dealing with these two individuals was Josh Hill,
who has a reputation of low bonds. So to have
to drag a family to court because these individuals are

(03:58):
entitled to a bond after the heinous acts that they committed,
it's just absolutely so sad. Now, the essence of bond
is for an individual to return to court. These individuals
have no community ties. One of them had only been
here three weeks and was clearly a flight risk. So
if you're not going to take those things into consideration
to deny those types of people bond, then who do

(04:21):
you want to deny bond too? The answer is if
people don't want anybody to be in jail. The reality
of it is that they are individuals who don't believe
that people should be incarcerated. So we have activist legislatures
is what we have.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Unbelievable. April, thanks for joining us. I wish you were
better News April l Gary crime victim effict it's seven
twenty six. It is time to take a look at
your money.