Ogg’s Office Botches Indictment, Pushes Violent Felon Out Jailhouse Door

Antjuan Dixon is something of a crime entrepreneur. He’s tried assault causing bodily injury. He’s tried armed robbery. He’s even tried credit card abuse, drug possession, and unlawful carrying of a weapon by a felon. Dixon’s activities landed him in the Texas penitentiary on a twelve year sentence. 

After he served his time, and returned home to Houston, it seems that Dixon just couldn’t help that entrepreneurial spirit. In January 2022, the Houston Police Department arrested Antjuan and charged him with multiple counts of armed robbery with a deadly weapon. And, given his status as a repeat violent offender charged with a new violent crime, Judge Danny Lacayo set a $500,000 bond.

Unfortunately for Mr. Dixon, none of his criminal start-ups resulted in a successful enough exit to allow him to afford to pay that high bail amount. So he sat in jail. But 91 days later, the same judge that set the $500,000 bond reduced the bond amount dramatically, allowing Dixon to put down $500 and walk out of the jailhouse door.

What happened?

Kim Ogg happened. 

It’s another case of PWI—prosecuting while incompetent—from Ogg’s Harris County District Attorney’s office. Under Texas law, Ogg’s office had 90 days to obtain a Grand Jury indictment against Dixon. But Ogg’s team just couldn’t be bothered to comply with the deadline. And state law is unforgiving in situations where a prosecutor can’t manage to get it together enough to get an indictment within three months—the judge must dramatically lower the bond amount so that the defendant can afford to pay it. Thus, instead of remaining in custody on a $500,000 bond, Antjuan Dixon walked straight out the jailhouse doors. 

Houston Watch spoke with Beth Exley, a former veteran prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, who emphasized that the blame here lands at the feet of the elected District Attorney and her senior leadership team. “The judge’s hands are tied unless and until the DA’s office does their job. That means filing a motion to hold at no bond and to request a hearing, where they then call live witnesses. [I]t’s not the front line prosecutor’s fault. It’s not the judge’s fault. It’s the upper administration’s failure to ensure that violent felons don’t get released.” 

Exley isn’t the only leader in Harris County that expressed deep concern over what happened in this case. A frustrated state senator, John Whitmire, speaking of the failings that led to the forced bond reduction, told Fox News that it is troubling to see “repeat armed robbers being released,” especially given how preventable the outcome was in this case given that “armed robber” is Dixon’s “demonstrated profession.” 

Andy Kahan, Director of Victim Services for Crime Stoppers Houston, shared Whitmire’s sentiment, venting to Fox News, “I don't know how you justify that … It simply defies logic and I'd love for someone to tell me why they thought this was in the best interest of public safety.”

Shortly after Dixon made bail, he was arrested again and taken into custody on new criminal charges. For Ogg, this misstep piles on top of a summer chock-full of embarrassing and dangerous losses. Earlier this year, Kim Ogg’s office lost an unprecedented three homicides and two sex trials in eight days. Her office has also suffered not guilty verdicts in at least fourteen driving while intoxicated cases. And, over a one-month period this Summer, Ogg lost more trials than she won. 

Experts say this mounting record of losses contributes to the three separate polls, including from the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, that have found that Harris County residents view Ogg least favorably among the county’s elected leaders (indeed, the Hobby School poll from this July found Ogg’s favorability to be under water).