CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Roxanne Palacios tried and failed Tuesday to get her bond reduced for a second time.
Attorneys for Palacios, the woman accused of causing a fatal wrong-way crash while intoxicated that killed 37-year-old Betsy Mandujano and 27-year-old Mathew Banda on the Harbor Bridge on Nov. 2, 2022, argued that her two $250,000 intoxication manslaughter bonds and one $100,000 intoxication assault bond are prohibitively high.
148th District Court Judge David Klein disagreed.
They said any reduction in her $600,000 bond would help, and that Palacios doesn't have a passport, and is willing to forfeit her driver's license, and wear an alcohol monitoring device while released on bond.
Palacios is accused of driving while intoxicated after attending a celebratory party with other Flatiron/Dragados LLC employees following the announcement that construction on the new Harbor Bridge could resume after critical flaws were found in July 2022.
Palacios was arrested Nov. 13 after being released from a local hospital and has been in jail since.
She argued Tuesday that her bond should be reduced in order for her to be able to care for her two children -- a 12-year-old boy who is autistic, and an 8-year-old daughter. She previously tried getting her bond reduced in December.
Edinburg attorney Austin Oxford represented Palacios during Tuesday's hearing, saying that her children have struggled since she's been in jail.
"She's the only one who can really get (her son) to get up and to go to school, to take showers -- to basically keep himself clean," he said.
The children are currently staying with her son's father.