"If Defendant Gonzalez Was Given Bail First Responder and Mother of Five, Yadira Arroyo Might B

New York, NY: Michelle Esquenazi, President of the New York State Bail Bondsman Association was appalled to learn that Jose Gonzalez was set free without bail despite being arrested 31 times on charges that included assault on a staff member at the homeless shelter where he lived and kicking out the window of a police van as he resisted arrest. Bronx Judge David Kirschner ignored the prosecutor’s request to set bail at $5,000 in spite of Gonzalez’s history of violence. Instead Judge Kirschner set the reputed Bloods gang member free on his own recognizance so that he could fatally mow down EMT Yadira Arroyo with her own ambulance. Arroyo was a 14 year veteran of the FDNY and a mother of five boys ranging in age from 7 to 23 years old.

Said Esquenazi, "It's heartbreaking to know that First Responder Arroyo could be alive today if either Judge Busching or Judge Kirschner heeded prosecutors’ requests to set bail instead of releasing Gonzalez on his own recognizance. Now her five boys will be left to fend for themselves because our criminal justice system failed them. Unfortunately, the Arroyo boys are joining many families across the country who have lost loved ones because Judges are caving in to pressure to remove bail and divert criminals into taxpayer funded programs such as the Bronx Freedom Fund.

"For the last 200 years, our criminal justice system has depended upon private bail bondsmen to supervise defendants accused of a crime while they await their day in court. The men and women of the bail industry take their job seriously because they know that public safety is at stake. If Judge Laurence Busching had given Gonzalez bail on his first assault charge, his friends or family would have had to make the decision about whether or not he should be released back into society or if he needed to remain in jail because he was a danger to himself or others. When he was arrested a second time, Judge Kirschner should have heeded the prosecutor’s request to consider Gonzalez’s long history of criminal behavior and upheld the oath he gave when he took office to, “…administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich…,” which means that he should not have considered Gonzalez’s financial condition with respect to the request for bail but instead considered whether the defendant would be a threat to society if set free. How can anyone explain to Arroyo’s five boys that the Judge was more worried about the defendant’s rights than the rights of their mother who took an oath to help those who needed her?"

The New York State Bail Bondsman Association has been vocal opponents against what they call the "No Bail = No Jail" movement being propagated by billionaire George Soros and multi-million dollar non-profits such as Civil Rights Corp, The Vera Institute and The Arnold Foundation.

Esquenazi continued, "George Soros is spending lots of money to get people to buy in to the notion that bail is bad for society and targets only the poor. The truth of the matter is vastly different than the propaganda and the rhetoric. As a society it is our obligation to protect the innocent and the victims of crime. Bail is a proven mechanism for doing that."

To make their case, NYSBBA points to the abortion of justice taking effect in New Jersey after Governor Chris Christie tricked voters into removing bail from that states criminal justice system.

"Since bail reform took effect in New Jersey on January 1, 2017, the state has freed two child molesters, a drug dealer arrested with a million dollars worth of heroin, and Joe Brown who shot up a Newark home while wearing his state issued monitoring bracelet among others. Law enforcement officials in New Jersey are calling bail reform a total fail. NYSBBA agrees and we implore our state legislature to halt any movement towards bail reform in New York. They owe that much to Yadira Arroyo’s children.”