Joey was stuck in jail with high bail and Anco was able to get him out.

To make an incredibly long story short, I was arrested because of a lie, and this horrible experience highlighted the pervasive and unconscionable levels of corruption in the Palestine, TX police department, as well as the Anderson County Jailhouse and courts.

The first phone call I made was to my wife.  She told me the police had already called her and she was on her way back home from two states away.  Neither of us knew what to do and the correctional officers at the Anderson County Jail didn't exactly care about helping me.  The even refused to tell me what the charges against me were. Then I made the mistake of being honest when I was asked if I felt depressed, confused, and hopeless.  I have just been ripped out of my entire life because of a lie, of course I feel hopeless.  What kind of dumb question is that?  Well, it was the kind of dumb question that landed me in isolation or segregation for 9 days in a room with no clothes and a broken velcro thing they make you put on.  Every 15 minutes someone comes by and makes sure you are alive and if you are sleeping they bang on the metal door that echoes loud in your cinderblock cell.  So you can't sleep, the food is absolutely disgusting to even smell, and the only water is Palestine water that tastes like you are drinking it out of the tail end of a turtle.  You are not allowed to talk to anyone, there is no TV and you can't even have a book.  Yeah, this makes a person feel less hopeless and depressed. At no point was I ever hostile or combative to the guards, so there was no justification for exceeding the number of consecutive days allowed by law for leaving me in segregation.

After 9 days they moved me into what the Anderson County jailhouse lovingly refers to as a tank.  Me and 7 other guys all shoved into one room and for the first time, I was able to get on the phone.  So I immediately called my wife again.  She was at home and trying to just keep everything together.  She wasn't any more used to this than I was and between talking to the police in Palestine, losing her job because of her decision to come home, and us already having our credit cards stretched thin because we maxed them for Christmas; she had no idea how she was going to get me out.  

My bond was set insanely high, which although unconstitutional, is apparently and sadly normal in Palestine, TX.  You either have to get an attorney who motions for a bond reduction while you are in jail, which can take months and still costs thousands of dollars, or you come up with an amount of money equal to buying a brand new loaded pickup truck cash outright to get out.  I couldn't wait months, as I had a job that was waiting for me and I knew it wouldn't just sit there, and I certainly don't have that kind of cash.

I started going down the list of bail bondsmen. Every person was just telling me I would have to get a bond reduction and didn't care about guilt or innocence.  Honestly, they didn't give a spit about me. Then several of my cell mates told me to call Anco Bail Bonds in Palestine.

The first time I called, I went to voicemail, and so I couldn't leave a message.  The second time, a different cell mate called and got someone to answer and handed me the phone.  That was the first time I spoke to Sarah.

I am so glad I did.

Anco bail bonds in Palestine Texas was completely different.  Sarah listened to me as she pulled up my case.  She asked me relevant questions and offered to call my wife to see what the two of them could come up with.  For the first time ever in this whole process, I felt like the world wasn't just closing in around me.

I got off the phone and honestly felt like I was in a commercial when I spoke to other inmates who gave me horror stories about their bail bond companies in and out of Palestine.  One told me that his bond company took less money, but when he got out, they revoked his bond and he got tossed right back in because he was one week late on a payment.  Another told me how his bond company took payments from his girlfriend and said they would help him once he got the goal he needed, but once she gave them that payment they decided to add on to it because it was payments instead of a lump sum and wouldn't refund her to go to someone else.  Honestly, the only person trying to give Anco a bad name was one guy who basically admitted to continuing to break the law.

Within a couple days, I was out. Sarah told me to take a shower and take the night before coming to see them the next morning.  My wife and I went and got some real food at the Pizza Hut on the south loop in Palestine.  She told me that she had gone to the other bond companies in downtown Palestine.  How they basically didn't care, but that she was on the phone with Sarah and finally felt like she was being treated like a person, and not a paycheck.

The next day we went to Anco Bail Bonds office, which is on 320 just past the entrance to upper lake in Palestine.  It's obvious they don't spend their money on making fancy billboards, flashy cars, or even office equipment.  I was a bit nervous about sitting down.  But finally I met the team at Anco.  

They were amazing.  They understood that I had never been through anything like this before.  They walked me through setting up and signing everything while we talked about my situation and what was going to happen next.  It was only then that I understood why Sarah didn't answer the phone the first time I called.  A call came in when she was talking to us, and she put it on mute.  Let that sink in.  Anco cared more about me and making sure I was their focus, than just the next check.

My life is far from normal, and honestly, I don't know that it ever will be again, but I know that if I ever need help again, I'm calling Anco and Sarah. My wife and I can't recommend them enough.