Harrison County judge warns Ferguson to report weekly or risk losing bond

Joshaun Ferguson appeared in court Aug. 26 on a motion to revoke bond. Ferguson was originally indicted March for two felony three counts of having a weapon under disability. 

Judge Shawn Hervey explained the allegations against Ferguson, “[The] motion alleges that Mr. Ferguson failed to report by phone on July 7, 2025… July 21… July 28… and Mr. Ferguson failed to report in person the month of July. Madam Prosecutor, what is the state’s recommendation as far as bond?”

“The state would request a monetary bond be placed on the defendant,” Prosecutor Lauren Knight said. “This would be his third bond. He originally had a $20,000 bond, failed to appear on that back in May of this year. There was another bond revocation filed and the bond was set on June 17 in the amount of $30,000. So the state would be satisfied with a similar bond.”

Ferguson’s attorney Eugene O’Byrne responded that his client had spoken to Officer Sarah Costine of the probation office about scheduling conflicts. O’Byrne said he doesn’t believe Ferguson has been intentionally noncompliant.

“I talked to him when he was in the car on the way [to court],” O’Byrne said. “I said ‘hey you got a warrant.’ He walked right in today. He’s not trying to duck you, or hide from the court. He walked right in today to face the music. There was no issue with that, knowing that he had a warrant… I think he called Sarah, he might have spoken to her today. I would ask that the court consider that. I’m not trying to give the court a hard time but I think he learned his lesson.”

Costine was called to the hearing and said that Ferguson had been given permission to leave messages as his weekly check ins but that his calls had been inconsistent throughout July.

“I told him that as long as he phone reported at least once a week, we wouldn’t have any issues,” Costine said. “There were a few weeks in July he didn’t phone at all the entire week and then he didn’t report in person in July.”

Hervey asked her to explain the timeline of events that led to the motion to revoke bond.

“He would phone report, leave me a message,” Costine said. “Then the next week he wouldn’t phone report and then the week after he would. Then the next week he wouldn’t. Whenever he didn’t report in person in July was when I decided to file the motion to revoke.”

“What’s your position now?” Hervey asked. “If I give him a chance to follow it, will he follow it?”

“I think he’s in a position right now where he understands the severity of what’s going on,” Costine said. “So I do think he would continue to phone report weekly.”

Bond was left the same. Hervey reiterated the expectations of the court for Ferguson to report on time each week. 

“This is probably the most liberal bond I’ve ever set on someone with an F3 ever,” Hervey said. “We’re already on one bond revocation and were looking at another one today… So the expectation is call until you get a person and the expectation is you get down here once a month. Felony three, you gotta treat it like it. It should be the most important thing.”