Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City posted $1.4 million more in cash bonds Thursday to get four more protesters out of jail while their criminal cases are pending.
Earlier this month, it posted $2.1 million in cash bonds to secure the release of eight protesters it described as political prisoners.
Much of the money was wired from the National Bail Fund Network, a nonprofit that has seen a surge in donations since the death May 25 of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
“This is what we do. The National Bail Fund Network makes sure there’s support for community bail funds across the country,” director Pilar Weiss said.
Released Thursday from the Oklahoma County jail were terrorism defendant Eric Christopher Ruffin and rioting defendants Adam Warner Hayhurt, Desha Lee Dixon and James Lovell Holt.
Black Lives Matter had to post $750,000 for the release of Ruffin, 26, of Oklahoma City, because he was charged twice with violations of the Oklahoma Anti-Terrorism Act.
He is accused of encouraging others to burn an Oklahoma County sheriff’s van and an Oklahoma City bail bonds business May 30. The van was destroyed. CJ’s Bail Bonds had $8,850 in damage from broken windows but did not catch on fire. Ruffin denies wrongdoing.
“Its Crazy How Im Being Made To Be A Terrorist, Its Crazy How The System Trying To Do Me,” Ruffin posted on Facebook.
Black Lives Matter posted $300,000 for the release of Hayhurst, $300,000 for the release of Dixon and $50,000 for the release of Holt.
Bail for Holt had been set at $300,000 last month but a judge reduced it Wednesday.
District Judge Ray C. Elliott also gave Holt a daily curfew and required him to wear an ankle monitor. Holt, 31, of Oklahoma City, is accused of throwing rocks at a museum door at the Oklahoma City National Memorial on May 31.
Still in jail is protester Isael Antonio Ortiz, 21, of Welch. His bail on two terrorism cases is set at $1 million.
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