Indicted ICE Officer Mario Morales Is Released on $30,000 Bond, With His Next Harris County Hearing Set for December 2
The court day that began with a surrender ended with a release. ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales, indicted on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the Oct. 10 Clay Road case, was released on his $30,000 bond on Monday after his bond hearing, his attorney said. His next hearing is December 2.
HOUSTON - ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales was released on a $30,000 bond on Monday after appearing in court for a bond hearing, according to his attorney, David Lindenmuth, in CNN's updated report on the case. Morales had surrendered earlier Monday on the grand jury's indictment for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His next court hearing is set for December 2 - listed on a Harris County courthouse docket watch as an arraignment in the 488th Criminal District Court, case number 1986453.
The indictment's own language, obtained by CNN, alleges Morales 'intentionally, knowingly, and recklessly' caused serious bodily injury to Miguel Parra Hernandez 'by striking the Complainant with a motor vehicle.' The Oct. 10 incident, as the district attorney's office has described it, began when Morales, driving an ICE Jeep Grand Cherokee near Clay Road and Highway 6, pursued a vehicle driven by Parra Hernandez, who then fled on foot and was struck. Parra Hernandez, 48, has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years, has no criminal record and had no deportation order at the time, District Attorney Sean Teare said at Friday's news conference; he was hospitalized with leg fractures.
The federal side answered in its sharpest terms yet. An ICE spokesperson called the allegations that Morales struck Parra Hernandez intentionally 'RECKLESS and FALSE' in a statement to the Associated Press, adding that local officials are not authorized to investigate federal officers following their duties. Lindenmuth, who calls the strike an accident and the prosecution politically motivated, also filled in his client's background on Monday: Morales is a former corrections officer, pastor and military veteran who filed to run for Texas' 34th Congressional District in 2025 and later dropped out.
The indictment is an accusation, not a conviction, and Morales is presumed innocent as the case moves toward the December 2 arraignment. This desk is following the filing.
