Judges under fire for early release of sex offenders in Harris County
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Judges call it unsatisfactory termination. What it means is defendants who fail at following the court's rules are rewarded for it.
These convicted sex offenders all have something in common. The years they were sentenced to spend time on probation or community supervision turned into months.
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Some were sentenced to anywhere from five years to 10 years. They were done in no time at all.
"Pretty much," said Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers. "Nobody even did half of their sentence."
According to court documents, 53-year-old Omar Perez, a third grade teacher at the time, was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child.
On July 6, 2023, he pled guilty to a reduced offense, indecency with a child by exposure, and sentenced to seven years' probation.
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A little more than a year later, 263rd Judge Melissa Morris unsatisfactorily discharged Perez from community supervision.
The order states, "The defendant has not satisfactorily fulfilled the conditions of supervision imposed by the court, so his probation is terminated.'
"If the judge cuts them loose, then there's just nothing," said First Assistant DA David Mitcham. "And a lot of these are serious offenses."
Mitcham filed a motion questioning if judges have the legal authority to early terminate probation when the defendant has to register as a sex offender.
"These are serious offenses. They should be taken seriously by the court," he said. "Cutting them loose contrary to state law is very disconcerting."
Judge Morris has given early termination to four sex offenders.
"What makes it even worse is that the judges, when they are terminating these pronations, they're not notifying victims," said Crime Victims Advocate Rhonda Kuykendall.