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HENDERSON COUNTY – The Henderson County Sheriff\u2019s Office has taken an \u201caggressive stance\u201d to arrest child predators and keep East Texas safe.<\/p>\nHENDERSON COUNTY – The Henderson County Sheriff\u2019s Office has taken an \u201caggressive stance\u201d to arrest child predators and keep East Texas safe.<\/p>\n
Our news partner, KETK, visited with Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse, who makes sure his team is keeping the local community protected and raising awareness for victims of abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen a rise. I think it\u2019s the aggressive stance we have taken and the Crimes Against Children Task Force that was formed. We knew when it was formed that we would work more cases than we were originally…We knew the case load would go up… when you work one of these crimes, you do the interviews and start gathering physical and digital evidence, a lot of the times you get more and more victims,\u201d Hillhouse said. <\/p>\n
He also said that although these are serious crimes against children, every Texan has the ability to post bond when they are first arrested.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in the state of Texas, on their initial arrest, is able to post bond,\u201d Hillhouse said. \u201cA bond is not used for punishment, it\u2019s strictly used to promise to appear in court. The only instance a judge can deny a bond amount on an initial arrest would be a capital murder offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, the only reason a judge can deny bond is capital murder but Hillhouse explained that the courts regularly gather to improve the the bail system. \u201cEvery two years they look over bail reform and legislature studies to make the bonding procedure better,\u201d Hillhouse said.<\/p>\n
With many victims coming forward and child predators being arrested, Hillhouse said that the amazing organization, Henderson County Help Center, (HCHC) is a huge resource for the community.<\/p>\n
This nonprofit provides essential services for individuals and families including: <\/strong>HELPing crime victims: Through crisis and beyond<\/p>\n OVAG: Other victims assistance grants<\/strong> \u201cWe are lucky to have our task force housed at the help center so they are easily accessible if the help center has a concern they contact an investigator that\u2019s already there in the office and see if there is another case that needs to be worked,\u201d Hillhouse said.<\/p>\n The Henderson County Commissioners Court declared April 2025 as Child Abuse Prevention Month but Hillhouse and Henderson County officials believe protecting children should be talked about every month.<\/p>\n \u201cProtecting our children is one of the most important things we can do as a community,\u201d Henderson County Judge Wade McKinney said. \u201cThis proclamation is a call to action \u2014 not just for agencies and officials, but for every person in Henderson County. If we all stay aware, stay involved, and support families, we can help break the cycle of abuse and give every child the chance to grow up safe and strong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HENDERSON COUNTY – The Henderson County Sheriff\u2019s Office has taken an \u201caggressive stance\u201d to arrest child predators and keep East Texas safe. Our news partner, KETK, visited with Henderson County Sheriff Botie Hillhouse, who makes sure his team is keeping the local community protected and raising awareness for victims of abuse. \u201cWe have seen a … Continue reading Sheriff takes \u2018aggressive stance\u2019 on child predators<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1404915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/02\/hendersoncountybadge1.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-09 18:41:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/02\/hendersoncountybadge1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1404902"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1405063,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404902\/revisions\/1405063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1404915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1404902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1404902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1404902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nHelp line: Financial resource referrals and information
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\nAbstinence Program: For Henderson County teens<\/p>\n
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\nMaggie\u2019s House: Children\u2019s Advocacy Center<\/strong><\/p>\n