FOX 26 Houston KRIV's Randy Wallace and Crime Stoppers of Houston's Director of Victim Services and Advocacy, Andy Kahan, first met for an interview in the former Luther's Bar-B-Q at 59 and Little York parking lot to do an interview back in 1991.
Kahan was wearing a David Letterman T-shirt and, as a result, was only shown in the story from the neck up. The best advice Wallace ever gave Kahan was not to wear a competing network shirt to an interview.
That interview 34 years ago led to a weekly Channel 26 segment called "Breaking Bond," which has been going on for years.
Crime Stoppers of Houston, which has a building named after legendary Houston television anchor Dave Ward, was formerly primarily associated with segments on his station ABC13 KTRK. Now, FOX 26 might be more closely associated with the organization thanks to this segment.
In this mikemcguff.com exclusive interview, Wallace and Kahan recap the segment's history with me.
Mike McGuff: How did the idea for Breaking Bond come about, and when did it debut?
Randy Wallace: In late 2018, Andy Kahan alerted me to something we had never seen before: defendants free from jail on multiple bonds. Everyone granted a bond is told one of their bond conditions is no new criminal charges. We started doing a series of reports, including cases involving defendants who committed murder while out on bond. We also found murder defendants free on multiple felony bonds. In 2020, the decision was made to do it as a weekly series called Breaking Bond.
Andy Kahan: Randy and I had been doing stories on the issue of defendants on multiple felony bonds and or a Personal Recognizance, better known as a PR (Get out of Jail Free Card), getting charged with Murder since the summer of 2020. In November of 2020, Randy called me and said the station wanted to do a weekly segment, and former anchor Kaitlin Monte came up with a name calling it Breaking Bond. My response was, “That’s gold let’s do it."
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think four plus years later, we’d still be doing weekly segments on the same issue. In TV news, this is unheard of.
What would you consider some of the series' highlights over the years?
AK: We have done some amazing stories, and there’s a few that stick out to me. One offender was on bond for murder and pled guilty. He was allowed to remain on bond until his sentencing hearing. One of his bond conditions was he was allowed to get a haircut at Floyd’s Barber Shop on Post Oak. Randy and his photographer decided to go there and talk to the barber. Needless to say, you can only imagine their reaction when the crew walked in to ask for an interview. The barber agreed and remembered giving him a haircut because he told him he’s going away for along time to prison. In my warped mind, I thought this would have made a great ad like if you are going to the joint for a long time and you want to look good for your new roommates Floyd’s Barbershop is the place to go
Another funny segment involved an offender out on bond after finally being declared competent to stand trial. While he was in custody for 3 years, he wrote the Judge nonstop with lengthy letters that usually made no sense. When they gave him a PR Bond he was put into a boarding house. Randy went to the house and talked briefly with him and made the mistake of giving him his cell phone number. Right after he left and was interviewing neighbors, he must have received at least a dozen calls within a half hour. He called non-stop for hours, It was so insane, Randy had to finally block his number
Some of our ‘Guest Stars’ are repeat customers and appear on multiple segments. Nothing will ever top The Bail Bond Queen. We did 3 segments on her. I stated she must be in the Guinness Book of World Records for racking up 16 Bonds in a 16-month period mostly for Felony Theft. She racked up charges in Harris, Ft Bend, Brazoria, Galveston, and Brazos County and kept getting bond after bond after bond. She gets locked up after our segment but is once again released on Bond. One of her Bond conditions was she was not allowed to go to Target in the State of Texas. My response on the show was basically how in the hell are you going to enforce it---does each Target have a blowup picture of her at the entrance. She liked to steal baby food and sell it on eBay. She goes back to jail on new charges and gets probation from a visiting judge despite having felony charges waiting for disposition in 4 other counties. A month later she’s back in custody in Colorado County on 5 more Felony charges. Now, our Bail Bond Queen has 23 charges in less than 2 years. The visiting Judge who was none to pleased about our segment even though we never mentioned her name. When the Bail Bond Queen was brought back to Harris County to have her probation revoked, we were in the courtroom. The Visiting Judge insisted to be the one to sentence her and read her the riot act which we have on the show. Finally, the Bail Bond Queen was sent to prison for at least 6 years. I even produced a parody song ala Weird Al Yankovic to the tune of ABBA’s The Dancing Queen, calling it "The Bail Bond Queen." I will release the song complete with my backup dancers when I am dead!
Besides some of the zaniness, our reports have led to the arrests of offenders who violated their conditions of bonds, and I strongly believe the courthouse is well aware of the show and has made strident efforts NOT TO APPEAR ON BREAKING BOND.
RW: Documenting some 200 violent deaths in Harris County at the hands of defendants free from jail on multiple felony bonds. These people should be alive today.
Talk about the digital component "Behind Breaking Bond." How does that complement the on-air segment?
RW: We are able to take a deeper dive into the issue with guests. We also provided a platform for judicial candidates.
AK: We started doing a Livestream titled Behind Breaking Bond, filming first at Crime Stoppers and now because we are ‘Big Time’ at Fox News on Tuesday afternoon, usually with a guest. We generally talk about certain cases, issues, and, of course, a tease on what the Breaking Bond segment will be about. Our guests ranged from Law Enforcement, Surviving Members of Homicide, elected officials, including Mayor John Whitmire, Judicial Candidates, Criminal Justice Reformers, and many more. One of our semi-regulars was defense attorney Emily DeToto, who is now a District Judge. I liked the idea of having Judicial Candidates come on and talk about their perspective about the judicial system. Very rarely do Judicial candidates have a platform to let the public get to see and know them and we gave everyone an opportunity to appear. I am hoping to expand our content to include all components of our criminal justice system in 2025
What do you say to critics of the work CrimeStoppers is doing on this topic?
AK: My take on criticism we received is simply we must be doing a good job for certain entities to want to take potshots at us. I adhere to a quote by Winston Churchill who stated, "You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something." It comes with the territory. As a Victim Advocate, I am well aware when you advocate on behalf of one faction, you generally infuriate the other faction. I refereed high school basketball for 28 years and have always adhered to when you blow the whistle to make a call, half the crowd agrees with you, while the other half vigorously disagrees with you. You make the call you think is right, you sell it and move on. Mayor Bob Lanier was once asked at a press conference about something I might have done to offend somebody or an organization. Mayor Lanier, at the podium, turned to the reporter, who I will not name but will in my book, and responded by saying, “Look, I don’t expect Mr. Kahan to please the criminal element.” Thirty-plus years later. I still use that adage as it applies even more in this day and age
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
RW: I've been on the air for 35 years, and Breaking Bond is one of the highlights of my career.
AK: I was the first Victim Advocate in the country to be staffed out of the Mayor’s Office in 1992. The late great Mayor Bob Lanier brought me into his administration and gave me an incredibly long leash to tackle a myriad of issues revolving around victims’ rights. I learned very quickly the media would be my most powerful weapon and, if properly used, can be an agent of change. I developed relationships with local and national media to make sure victim's voices were always heard and there was a semblance of fairness and balance. The only time I got a bit nervous was when I appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The producers did not tell me I was going to be one-on-one with her onstage. I figured I would be in the audience when they go to an expert and talk from there. You can visibly see me getting a frog in my throat when Oprah asked me a question, almost like a gulp. When I wrapped up our interview, she stood up and gave me a high five!
I speak every semester at the School of Journalism at Texas A&M University about my 30-plus years of being in the media spotlight. I bring in media articles of all the different job titles bestowed upon me by the media, including Deputy Mayor of Houston and Houston Crime Group, and, of course, all the unique spellings of my last name.
