You play judge: Should this man have been released without bail?

Daimon Benson was charged in Kansas’ Wyandotte County court last spring with stealing a Hyundai Elantra – and was on house arrest in another county at the time.

He’d even been given felony probation just days before in nearby Johnson County for aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. He’d also been charged with alleged tampering with house-arrest monitoring equipment there – and, just across the state line in Jackson County, Missouri, with failure to appear in court on yet other charges.

Nonetheless, a Wyandotte County judge last April let him merely sign a promise to appear in the stolen car case and allowed him to go free on a cashless “own recognizance” (OR) bond. When he didn’t appear for a plea hearing in June, they issued a warrant for his arrest.

Benson is now in custody in Jackson County for a brazen 2022 highway murder in Kansas City – and the 19-year-old has reportedly told authorities he estimates he’s shot up to 400 people.

While The Heartlander has previously reported on a de facto revolving door at the Wyandotte County Jail in Kansas City, Kansas, such cases as Benson’s indicate a revolving door in the county’s courts as well.

Failure to appear? No problem

Indeed, the Heartlander has obtained records indicating rampant cashless bonds approved by Wyandotte County judges that allow suspects in violent crimes to get out of jail free – even those charged with previously failing to appear for court.

A confidential source tells The Heartlander there were at least 123 felony bookings last year at the county’s jail specifically for felony failure to appear for court (FTA) — after 119 such bookings in 2024.

Even so, the source says that doesn’t tell the entire story, either, as those numbers don’t include “actual FTA’s (from Court records), FTA’s on summonses issued by the DA’s office, FTA’s where the defendant was caught outside of the extradition mileage limits, or FTA’s where the DA’s office declined to extradite.”

Yet, the 123 jail bookings for FTA by themselves tell quite a story, the source says.

“The numbers are shockingly high, by comparison to past years at Wyandotte,” the source says in an email. “The numbers are astronomically high, by comparison to Leavenworth & Johnson Counties.

“What’s different:

“Wyandotte County [court] offers zero consideration as to a defendant’s history of FTA in court when considering [cashless] release. Johnson & Leavenworth consider FTA history as the #1 or #2 most important factor, depending on severity of newest charges.”

In Wyandotte County, just two or three judges have generally been responsible for deciding bond amounts: Candice Alcaraz, Tony Martinez and Renee Henry, though Henry is being reassigned from that duty this year due to personnel changes.

The result has been something of a revolving door at the Wyandotte County courthouse – even for criminal suspects who have exhibited a propensity not to appear in court later on. Indeed, the source says, neither another failure to appear, nor a new criminal offense, has been enough to keep such suspects in jail or to at least require a cash-backed bond.

In short, failures to appear and even new crimes have been occurring in “a predictable fashion,” The Heartlander’s source concludes, providing these examples — among dozens:

Case 25CR680: Myrrissa Cisneros-Worthey is charged with level 4 distribution of fentanyl. The case notes say Judge Henry ordered [a cashless] bond, but the bond has Judge Alcaraz’s signature stamped on it. This causes me to wonder if staff in the Pretrial Services department have judge signature stamps. The case is in warrant status for failure to appear in court.

Case 25CR1487: Gale Cruse is charged with a level 4 aggravated battery & level 8 mistreatment of a dependent adult. In 2024 this defendant had an aggravated assault case dismissed after the victim [a relative] didn’t show up in court. Cruse has since been rebooked back into jail on the pending agg. battery case after he was found to be living with his victim [in the abuse case]. The DA’s office has yet to file additional charges for the [Protection from Abuse] violation.

Case 25CR1007: Dustin Dishman is charged w/ being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun & possession of methamphetamine. Dishman didn’t bother to show up in court on his [own recognizance, cashless] bond and was booked back into jail on 12/22/25 – not only for his failure to appear warrant, but for additional [allegations, as yet uncharged] of distribution of drugs.Dishman has multiple prior Wyandotte bookings for FTA on felony cases and has done time in prison for Fel. flee & elude (Leavenworth case).

Case 24CR1171: Emily Nelson is charged with simple felony possession of methamphetamine. The case notes say Judge Alcaraz ordered a [cashless] bond from the bench on 11/12/24. This bond is notable not only because Nelson didn’t bother to appear in Court, but because of her lengthy history of bookings for failure to appear and probation violations. After Nelson was arrested for her FTA warrant, Judge Mikesic ordered her screened for [a cashless] court services/PTS bond where Nelson listed her home address as … [a motel known as] a notorious drug hub. … Nelson again didn’t bother to show up in court and was rearrested on 12/12/25.  A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

After Nelson was arrested for her FTA warrant, Judge Mikesic ordered her screened for [a] Court Services [Pretrial Supervision (PTS)]  bond where Nelson listed her home address as … a notorious drug hub. … Nelson again didn’t bother to show up in court and was rearrested on 12/12/25. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

Case 25CR932: Kenneth Keith was charged with aggravated domestic battery & domestic battery. Keith has now been booked at Wyandotte 9 times in the past 8 years. 8 of the 9 bookings involve failure to appear in court. Keith didn’t bother to show up on [a Court Services cashless] bond and was rearrested on 11/13/25 – not only for FTA in court, but also for felony drug possession.

The DA’s office still hasn’t bothered to charge the newest felony drug possession case. Keith has an uncharged felony aggravated assault arrest from April 2022 and an aggravated battery case that was dismissed in October 2019 due to victim failure to appear. Keith remains in custody pending sentencing next month.

Case 25CR76: Kenya Jackson was charged with attempted carjacking using a handgun. Jackson didn’t bother to show up in court on the … Court Services [cashless] bond and was rearrested on 11/5/25. Despite her failure to appear, Jackson was fast tracked to probation and has since been rearrested for probation violation.

“Threat to public safety”

Still, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas argues that not enough criminal suspects are being allowed out of jail.

The far-left organization calls the requirement for collateral in jail bonds “wealth-based pre-trial release,” arguing “money bail subverts the presumption of innocence to which criminal defendants are entitled and causes harm to individuals, their families, and entire communities.”

The Kansas Legislature, on the other hand, has explored this issue in recent years, hearing from the Kansas Bail Agents Association that cashless bonds lead to such revolving doors as in Wyandotte County.

President Donald Trump in August signed an executive order asking the attorney general for a list of states and local jurisdictions that have “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order, including offenses involving violent, sexual, or indecent acts, or burglary, looting, or vandalism.”

“The order then directs cabinet secretaries and other agency heads,” the New York Post reported, “to ‘identify Federal funds, including grants and contracts, currently provided to cashless bail jurisdictions … that may be suspended or terminated, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.’”

Would the consolidated Kansas City, Kansas/Wyandotte County qualify for such a funding cut?

“In my opinion, yes, Wyandotte belongs on that list,” The Heartlander’s source says.

“The White House,” the New York Post editorialized, “is on solid ground in citing how no-bail laws empower ‘repeat criminals who mock our justice system by committing crime after crime without consequence,’ and it’s beyond fair for Trump to fume over how such jurisdictions ‘waste’ funds and create ‘a threat to public safety’ by cutting loose perps with ‘pending criminal charges or criminal history.’”