Texas Sheriff Refuses Felony Warrant Hold at International Airport
As Accused Molester Flees Second Arrest Warrant
The
practice of bail bonds has been under attack for years but the battle
has heated up the last few years and the bail bond industry is being
gutted while liberal judges give out OR bonds, Own Recognizance bonds,
merely the criminal's word that he will show up and face the charges and
stand trial.
Some
of the arguments make sense, non violent offenders that are zero flight
risk ought to be able to get out of jail so they keep their jobs and
can support their families while the judicial system grinds through
their charges. And for many years we had a state mandated list of those
crimes that were not eligible for an OR bond. First the big counties
like OKC and Tulsa county simply began ignoring that list of crimes
ineligible for OR bond, then the legislators started changing the laws
to enshrine the OR bond for some of the worst criminals.
Meet
Don Terry Caricofe, accused child molester. Caricofe isn't one of our
usual career criminals, he has a bit of a checker past , terrible driver
it seems, some medical bill lawsuits, and one previous felony
conviction in September 2007, Domestic assault and battery and DUI, CM-2007-3182 , disposed of by a guilty plea and Caricofe paying his $1614.00 in costs and fees to settle the matter.
Then in March of 2019 Caricofe was arrested with, CF-2019-1164
, six separate counts of indecent or lewd acts with a child under 16.
He was soon out on $100,000 bond a few days after his arrest. His
probable cause hearing was in September 2019, probable cause found and
Caricofe was bound over for trial.
Then in November of 2019, Caricofe was arrested again while out on bail bond, CF-2019-4567 , another arrest for indecent or lewd acts with a child, said to be a different victim.
One
highly placed source stated that Caricofe was first turned in by his
own daughter, with the one of the victims being a 3 year old
granddaughter. Odds are that the daughter was treated little different.
We know that there are a total of seven counts, two possible victims
have been identified, are there more? Very likely the answer would be
yes.
Now, we have an
accused child molester, accused of sodomy no less, yet despite already
being out on $100,000 bail for six previous sexual assault charges he
was released on November 13th on an OR bond, Own Recognizance, by Oklahoma County Judge Mark McCormick.
Caricofe
was stopped by Dallas/Fort Worth International airport security due to
the felony warrant for the latest crime but the local sheriff's office
doesn't hold out of state criminals and it is nearly impossible to
extradite a misdemeanor warrant from the state of Texas. This was no
misdemeanor, it was a serious felony, yet the man was allowed to leave
the country.
One doesn't have to be
100% cynical to believe that running was a logical and expected outcome
of being let out of jail after being caught with a seventh act of child
molestation or rape. And yet some judge thought this was a good idea.
The
case has been reassigned to Judge Henderson but the likelihood of
Caricofe showing up for hearings or his trial is pretty remote.
There is a nationwide epidemic of “bond reform” including one story out of Houston where
a criminal killed a cop and received $150,000 bond. Luckily for the
citizens an uproar occurred and different charges were filed and the
bond offer was withdrawn.
At
what point do we return to the ideas that government exists for one
valid purpose; to protect the citizens from those that would harm or
take advantage of them. At what point do we stop defending criminal's
rights and begin protecting the right of victims?
