$150K of Indianapolis taxpayer dollars went to a group that paid $1,500 to bail a man out of jail who was charged with a stabbing at an east-side convenience store last December. While he was out on bond, the suspect, Marcus Garvin, 33, allegedly stabbed his girlfriend to death at an east-side motel on July 24.
Garvin was released from jail after judge Shatrese Flowers lowered his bond to $1,500 and allowed him to be placed on GPS monitoring. The decision was made at the objection of prosecutors.
Garvin’s $1,500 bond was paid by The Bail Project, an organization that helps pay suspects’ bail and seeks an end to cash bail altogether. WRTV in Indianapolis reported on August 6th that “The Bail Project gets some of its money from Indianapolis taxpayers,” prompting city leaders to call for an audit of the city’s violence-prevention grants.
City-County Council member Paul Annee told the Hammer and Nigel Show Monday that he wants to determine whether Garvin’s case is “an isolated incident” or one of many.
“We need to make sure that Indianapolis taxpayer dollars are being put to fighting crime, not facilitating it,” said Annee.
The councilman said the $150K that The Bail Project received came from funding that was appropriated from the City-County Council to the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), a philanthropy foundation, in the form of a grant.
“The [CICF] then administers the grant money and determines which organizations are recipents of that funding,” explained Annee. “So my call for an audit is to better understand what organizations are receiving the money and, more importantly, once those organizations receive the money, how they are spending it.”
The Bail Project released a statement after Garvin’s recent arrest, saying that it received a referral for bail assistance from his public defender.
“As we do with all referrals, we interviewed Mr. Garvin to gather information about his legal history, his ability to return to court, and to identify any unmet needs,” the statement said. “He had a stable place to live with family and a plan to return to court to resolve his case.”
The Bail Project says the funds used to pay Garvin’s bond did not come from the $150K grant administered by the CICF. That claim has not been confirmed, according to Annee.
“It looks like [Garvin] was potentially bailed out on city funds and then while on bond, proceeded to stab his girlfriend over 50 times and attempted to dismember her body,” said Annee. “So an independent audit is in order to ensure that this is not happening on a widespread scale.”
Click the link below to hear Hammer and Nigel’s full interview with Councilman Paul Annee.
https://omny.fm/shows/hammer-and-nigel-show/paul-annee-talks-bail-situation-in-indy
