We often hear about the injustices our people face when entangled in the U.S. legal system. Local, state and national stats paint a horrid picture of Black people being over-policed, over-arrested, over-incarcerated, and over-sentenced when compared to their white counterparts accused of similar wrongdoings.
But stats alone can’t do justice to the injustices so many Blacks face in the system. The numbers often mask the very real human dramas occurring every hour on the hour to some Black man, woman, or child.
The Defender spoke to one such “statistic,” Tommie Cole, who is now freed from the Harris County Jail after spending two years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.
Defender: Can you tell us your story?
Cole: I worked for this trash company named Triple D Waste Management, and I was on my way to work, on my way to catch the bus. I ran across the street from ongoing traffic to hurry up and catch the bus, and during the time of me doing it, there was an altercation, I guess, at a McDonald’s or somewhere. But it wasn’t anywhere near me. So, when I ran across the street to flag the bus down, the police pursued me. And the officer by the name of Officer Malvanado, the arresting officer, he didn’t say stop running, stop walking, or stop anything. He just said, “Stop. I’m gonna shoot you in your MF back and you need to lay down.”
They stopped me at a Pep Boys on West Road at 45 North. So, when Officer Malvanado slammed me, he slammed me on my face, on my leg. I was scarred up for a while. He asked me why I was running. I told him, “I was trying to catch the bus. I’m late for work. I’m just trying to get to work.” He said he was going to handcuff me and check my ID and see if I had any warrants, any tickets. I told him, “No sir; I didn’t have anything. I haven’t been in trouble in 20 years. I’ve just been working, trying to get my life back together.” He said he wasn’t trying to hear all that. I gave him my identification card, let him check it. No tickets, no warrants, no nothing. I was in handcuffs roughly four to five hours.
Defender: Four to five hours in handcuffs?
Cole: In handcuffs in the backseat of a police car. And as it went on, a sergeant pulled up and asked, “What was going on?” Officer Malvanado said they had a phone call for two people in the parking lot fighting. They didn’t say what parking lot. They did find the two guys that were fighting. They didn’t have anything to do with me. So, I said, “Excuse me, officer. I’m sitting in the back of this car. I don’t know what’s going on.” So, another officer pulled up and said they found a gun. So, the lieutenant pulled up and asked Malvanado where the gun came from. Officer Malvanado said he didn’t know where the gun came from. The lieutenant was like, “Well, we’re just gonna let the two dudes who were fighting go because we found a gun and we don’t know where the gun came from, so he’s the bigger fish.” So, basically, they said, “We can fry him (me). He has a background that is intense.” And they rolled out with that.
Defender: What happened next?
Cole: So, they called the DA. And one DA was like, “It’s not a probable cause. You don’t know for sure if he was at that scene or not. So let him go.” They called another DA. The DA said the same thing: “It’s no probable cause; let him go.” So, the lieutenant who came up and asked Malvanado where the gun came from, said he would call his friend who was a DA. When he called his friend, she explained to him how to write it up to where it would stick. But she said it could not come to her court, which it did not go to her court. So, they wrote it up, and I was told I was going to jail for a ticket that I did not have. So, I wound up going to jail and going to court. I went to PR court and they told me I was in there for a felony possession of a firearm. And I was like, “I don’t have a gun.” I said, “Ma’am, I have on work clothes. I’m on my way to work. I was told I was going for a ticket.” So, when I went in front of the judge, I tried to explain my situation to the judge. I’m not gonna say my color or anything like that, but me with my background, the judge wasn’t trying to hear me. They gave me a PR bond on evading arrest, which was a $10,000 bond. And she no-bonded me for the felony possession. But when I got to the felony possession, when I got to regular court, which was court 232, Judge Josh Hill, when I got there, I went to jail July 13, my daughter’s birthday.
Defender: What about your legal representation?
Cole: I didn’t see my lawyer until Nov. 9. That’s when I understood that I had the bond for $1.2 million. And I was like, why would I get a bond for $1.2 million? I haven’t been in trouble in 20 years. Why can’t I get a regular bond of $50,000? I even would’ve taken $60,000 to make bond, to get home back to my kids. I didn’t see my lawyer again until my birthday, March 27. He came in, gave me a reset paper, and told me happy birthday. After that, I went back to court on July 19 of the following year. And that’s when he told me they weren’t going down and they were stuck at $1.2 million bond.
Defender: Hold on one second. So, you were in jail for over a year before he’s telling you the bond isn’t going down? Am I hearing that correctly?
Cole: Yes, sir. I stayed in jail all that time. And when it was time for me to go to court, I would never go to court. I’d just go out, dress out, go downstairs, and when I got to the tunnels to get to court, they’d always turn me around and say my lawyer was not present. He’s not in today. He’s not coming. So, after about a year in jail, I caught the COVID when the COVID first came out, and they moved me to another dorm where the COVID originally had come from, which is 1200 Baker Street. With COVID, they said I couldn’t go to court. So, I was in jail for a “whole nother” year.
DN: Read part 2 of Cole’s story at DefenderNetwork.com
