SAN ANTONIO — Sydney Bosworth logged on to Twitter Tuesday morning feeling angry at the justice system.
In a series of tweets, now deleted, she typed up her frustration towards her accused attacker, Andrew Pantaleon. Back in June, San Antonio Police, say Pantaleon stabbed the young woman multiple times at a local movie theater. At the time, the 24-year-old was a complete stranger to Bosworth. Now he takes up space in several posts on her social media.
In one of her now-deleted tweets she wrote on Tuesday, she said, "I am permanently paralyzed in my right arm because of this. This is not justice, this is a joke."
The tweet comes after Bosworth found out Pantaleon's attorney filed a request in early November for a modified bond condition. According to Pantaleon's attorney, the modification is to remove the Full GPS condition and substitute it with Partial GPS for work so he may maintain his occupation. In other words, if the request is approved, Pantaleon would be allowed to leave his house for work.
The request is currently pending.
In a statement to KENS 5, Bosworth's attorney said, “Ms. Bosworth justifiably has strong feelings about her attacker. She was brutally stabbed in a movie theater with no provocation and no motive. No one in the District Attorney’s office called Ms. Bosworth to alert her to this requested change in his bond conditions, tell her what the change may be, or even ask for her position on the matter.”
Pantaleon first made bail in June, just one day after he was booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $150,000 bond. His attorney said his bond includes a condition that places him on house arrest. Still, him being out of jail and possibly at work makes Bosworth uneasy.
"This is the cost of our cash bail system," said Christian Henrickson, the Bexar County District Attorney's chief of litigation.
Henrickson, who isn't speaking directly on the case, said it's a common misconception that just because a person is charged with a serious offense that they're gong to sit in jail until they go to trial. He said if the person has the money to post bail they will. Others can go to court and request a bond reduction such as the high profile case of Andre McDonald, who is accused of murdering his wife in 2019. He made bond on November 12 after his attorney managed to reduce his bond to $250,000.
"Basically the law allows the judge to consider the facts of the case, the crime that they're charged for and whether or not the defendants are a danger to the community. So obviously, if a case is a murder case, something where a victim is injured or abused in a serious way, that's going to be something that a judge is going to consider when setting a bond. [However] the judges are not allowed to set the bond with the intent to detain," he said.
Henrickson said there are very few instances where a person can be held without bond. Yet in cases were bond is made, a judge then can add conditions such a GPS monitoring, house arrest among other things. However, even those conditions can eventually be modified.
"A defense attorney can argue that the condition is too onerous, unnecessary," Henrickson said.
It's a reality Bosworth is now facing with Pantaleon's request. For now, her attorney said in the statement, "She is following her attacker’s case closely to make sure justice is served on her assailant."