Questions Loom Over Ties Between Ogg & Bondsman For Alleged Cop Killer
TOPLINES:
The Harris County Bail Bond Board meets tomorrow to decide whether to renew the bail bond licenses of Anthony and Wisam Muharib. The pending decision comes on the heels of a string of public relations disasters for the Muharib family. Think: FBI raids, suspension of the right to bond people out of jail, and a man accused of murdering a law enforcement officer while out on bond on a different murder case.
District Attorney Kim Ogg is one of the members of the bail bond board. Thousands of dollars from Anthony and Wisam Muharib have helped to fuel her political campaigns. Her ties with the family also include appointing Anthony Muharib to her transition team as a trusted advisor on bail policy.
As murder victim family members are calling for the bail bond board to take action against the Muharibs tomorrow, a looming question remains—can Kim Ogg render an impartial decision or should she recuse herself?
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Meet The Muharibs—Anthony, Sheba, and Wisam Muharib are family members who operate Houston area bail bonds companies. All three Muharibs are big players in the bail bonds business, per data from the Harris County Justice Administration Department.
A stunning track-record of bailing out the violent and the dangerous. No one should be in jail simply because they can’t afford to purchase their freedom. But the Muharibs aren’t just bailing out people accused of low level or non-violent offenses who are short on cash. The Muharibs together have enabled the release of an accused murderer in over one hundred cases, according to Harris County District Clerk records. These cases include:
An accused cop killer. While out on bond, one of the people charged with murder for whom Wisam Muharib enabled release from jail was arrested and charged with the murder of a law enforcement officer during a road rage incident last month.
A man who allegedly killed his wife and stuffed her remains in a freezer. In another case, Sheba Muharib enabled the release of a man who was charged with murdering his wife and stuffing her remains in a freezer. At the time when Muharib made the decision to act as this man’s bail bond agent, it was already clear that he was accused of violating a protective order meant to keep him away from family members he was alleged to have abused.
Bad Behavior On Bond Doesn’t Phase The Muharibs. In other murder cases, even after a judge found that the alleged murderer violated his or her conditions of bail, a Muharib continued to serve as the bail bond agent—and even agreed to accommodate higher bond amounts set as a result of the bond violation in some cases.
The Muharibs are under fire from all sides.
The FBI recently raided the offices of Sheba Muharib’s bail company:
The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday that the Harris County Sheriff’s Office is no longer accepting bonds from Anthony Muharib.
The family “faced questioning in April during a renewal application over allegations of ‘deceptive trade practices’ and other “things they shouldn’t be doing”, the Chronicle reported.
Families of homicide victims are calling for the bail bond board to act.
A Lavish Lifestyle, Public Safety Be Damned. Why would a bail bondsman decide to enable the release of a person charged with murder with track records chock full of red flags? A peek at the Instagram and Facebook accounts of brothers Anthony and Wisam Muharib suggest a possible motive—high risk, high bond cases fuel a lavish lifestyle:
The Day of Reckoning? Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 14th, the Harris County Bail Bond Board will decide whether to renew the bail bond licenses of Anthony and Wisam Muharib. At the hearing, Sheba Muharib is expected to “terminate and surrender her bail bond license effective immediately.”
Questions Over D.A. Kim Ogg’s Potential Recusal From The Bail Bond Board Hearing Tomorrow Loom Large. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is one of the Bail Bond Board Members who will decide the fate of the Muharibs’ bail bond licenses tomorrow. There are serious questions about her ability to be impartial in those proceedings:
Follow the $$$. Ogg has accepted multiple campaign donations from both Anthony and Wisam Muharib, totaling thousands of dollars in support from the bail bondsman brothers.
Bail Bondsman To Murderers Asked To Guide Ogg’s Bail Policy. When a newly elected candidate to public office announces a transition team, it is filled with people who she believes shares her values and can help guide the office’s approach. Despite there being over 5 million people to choose from in Harris County alone, Ogg appointed Anthony Muharib to her transition team to help her guide bail policy for the District Attorney’s Office.
CHRON ED BOARD ASKS: “Why didn’t Ogg … vote to ban cheap bail for dangerous Harris County defendants? …[Harris County crime survivors hoped to] persuade the board to pass a measure that would have forced bail bondsmen to charge their clients a fee of at least 10 percent … Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg abstained from voting. The question is why. It seemed a rare opportunity to improve public safety with a measure that already had bipartisan backing from Harris County commissioners.” Ogg’s ties to the Muharibs, all of whom benefitted from the ability to attract clients who could only put down less than 10%, could be a motivating factor.
What Is Ogg Hiding? And Why? A Houston Watch records request revealed that the D.A. has communications between herself and the Muharibs that she is actively refusing to make public. Ogg’s Office told Houston Watch: “The District Attorney wishes to withhold information responsive [to Houston Watch’s request]” and asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to “find the materials described herein [as] excepted from disclosure”.
Houston Watch asked Ogg whether she had returned the donations from the Muharibs and whether she would accept further donations from them. Houston Watch also asked Ogg whether she should recuse herself from tomorrow’s bail bond board meeting in light of the ties between her and the Muharib family. Ogg did not immediately respond.