District Judges keep rapists of children in jail

Previous offenses allow conditions of no bail

Waco – It was one of those remarks toddlers make as casually as if they are talking about something as inconsequential as nails, snails and puppy dog tails.

“My daddy put his wee wee in my mouth,” the three year old girl said, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Sheriff's Office Detective Jos. M. Scaramucci.

When the child's mother pursued the matter, the kid clammed up. She wouldn't talk about it.

According to the detective, the child had been visiting her father in Bellmead during the months between March and July of 2009. She and her mother live in Arkansas. When he got the case in July of 2009, Detective Scaramucci was unable to locate the child or her mother.

In February of this year, Jody Bradshaw contacted him about the counseling her daughter had received. The therapist was able to learn that the child's father, a Bellmead man named Justin Brinegar, 41, had pulled his pants down and persuaded the little girl to lick his penis. He even showed her a movie of what he was wanting her to do, according to the affidavit Det. Scaramucci filed.

A DVD of the counseling sessions revealed that the child was not showing any deception, according to the Children's Protection Center Counselor Ally Orsi, of Little Rock. The child responded to anatomical drawings and named each part of the experience accurately.

When police arrested Mr. Brinegar on the charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, Jail Magistrate Virgil Bain set his bond at $30,000.

In a recorded interview, Detective Scaramucci later learned that another female child of Mr. Brinegar had two similar experiences. When she was 15, she awakened to find herself nude from the waist down after going to bed fully clothed. Her father, she said, had his finger in her vagina, but claimed she had consented to his attentions. She denies it because, she said, she was asleep.

Two years later, when she was suffering from neck pain caused by an accident, he provided her with pain medication that made her “knocked out;” when she again awoke nude, she was unable to remember an alleged sexual assault in which Mr. Brinegar subsequently admitted having penetrated her vagina.

Arrested on that charge, Justice Court Judge Kristi DeCluitt set his bond at $30,000.

When 19^th Criminal District Court Judge Ralph Strother learned of the offense, he ordered his arrest for insufficient bond. He set no bond for his release.

It's a provision of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure that allows a condition of no bond on certain non-capital offenses that involve a repeat offense involving sexual assault of a child.

In a similar case, 54^th Criminal District Court Judge Matt Johnson ordered Jack Stone, 49, of Waco, held without bond after Justice Court Judge Billy Martin set his bond at $150,000 on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child in July.

Police arrested Mr. Stone for indecency with a child on August 13 and failure to register as a sex offender on a previous conviction on August 15.