From Ex parte Lee, decided last week by the Tenth District Texas Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Chief Justice Tom Gray, joined by Justices Matt Johnson and Steven Lee Smith:
Allen Michael Lee is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of sexual assault of a child. Bail amounts were set at $400,000 in total for the three charges. He has not been able to make bail. He filed a pre-trial application for a writ of habeas corpus asking to either be released or have bail reduced to $15,000 total. After a hearing, the trial court denied Lee's application.
In one issue, Lee contends the trial court abused its discretion in denying Lee's request for a bail/bond reduction. Specifically, he contends the initial bail set was excessively high and that the trial court abused its discretion by denying his application without an explanation.
In presenting error to this Court, an appellant's brief must contain a clear and concise argument of the contentions made with appropriate citations to authorities and to the record. That has not occurred in this case. In the "Standard of Review" and "Applicable Law" sections of his brief, Lee cites to the general, applicable case law and statutes.
However, in his "Argument" section, where appropriate citations must be included, Lee cites to five cases to support the two sub-arguments to his issue. Only three of those five cases are published. None of the three published cases cited actually exist in the Southwest Reporter. Each citation provides the reader a jump-cite into the body of a different case that has nothing to do with the propositions cited by Lee. Two of the citations take the reader to cases from Missouri. As the State points out, even Texas cases with the same names as those cited by Lee do not correspond with the propositions relied upon. [A footnote lays out the details, quoting the State's brief. -EV]
