WACO, Texas (Nexstar) — As Kasey Allen prepared for her husband’s funeral, she met Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and told him the state should change the way judges set bond for felons.
Allen’s husband, Department of Public Safety Trooper Damon Allen, was shot and killed by a man he pulled over during a routine traffic stop on Thanksgiving Day 2017. Authorities said the suspect, Dabrett Black, had previously been convicted for assaulting a sheriff’s deputy, and was out on bond related to violence against a peace officer.
Abbott said the judge in the most recent case was unaware of Black’s criminal history.
“That is a flaw in our legal system that must be fixed,” Abbott said Tuesday.
Kasey Allen has spent the last eight months since her husband’s death working on ways to protect law enforcement and strengthen public safety, taking her demands straight to the state’s CEO, Gov. Abbott.
“After his death, I was sad, and of course I was angry, but I also knew that in order to honor his memory I needed to work toward change for our system,” Allen said.
She explained, “The man who killed my husband, he should have been behind bars and not on the road that day.”
Abbott introduced the Damon Allen Act, aiming to increase communication in the court system and keep closer tabs on repeat offenders.
“Under this plan, I’m also calling for a statewide case management system so judges and magistrates have all the info they need before making a ruling on setting bail,” Abbott said.
The Texas State Troopers Association, which represents around a thousand of the state’s 3,800 troopers, supports the plan. Executive Director Jack Crier said providing more information not just to courts, but to law enforcement agencies, would help day-to-day interactions.
“Anything [troopers] can access that would give them any indication of what they’re dealing with would be important,” Crier said.
Criminal justice advocates with the American Civil Liberties Union still have questions before backing Abbott’s proposal.
“Until we see something on paper we really won’t know,” ACLU smart justice strategist Nick Hudson said.
He continued, “We can’t comment fully until we see the details, but we look forward to working with anyone who is interested in prioritizing safety and restoring justice to the pretrial system in Texas.”
“Bail reform got further than it ever has before in the state of Texas last session,” Hudson said. “Next session, we hope reforms go a bit further than the governor proposed today.”
After Tuesday’s announcement, Abbott’s Democratic opponent in the November election, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, released a statement saying the governor’s plan does not go far enough.
“If we are going to talk about keeping our communities safe from harm, we must put in place gun safety measures including universal background checks and red flag laws, which could have kept Dabrett Black from having access to the gun that killed Officer Allen,” Valdez said.
“If we are going to talk about bail reform,” Valdez continued, “we must address that too many people in Texas are kept behind bars not because they pose a high-risk threat to public safety, but because they can’t afford cash bails — often causing financial insecurity to families and leading to more crime down the road.”
Black pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges in March. His next pretrial court date is Sept. 27 in Freestone County.
