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A Marion County circuit judge set a $15,000 cash bond for Steven Lawrence Manson on Tuesday, less than a week after Manson was arrested on a warrant that had ordered him held with no bond at all.
Circuit Judge Andrew S. Bailey also ordered Manson Sr. to wear an ankle monitor and barred him from leaving Arkansas. Both conditions were requested by the state.
This family has been fitted with an ankle monitor before. Manson Sr.’s son was wearing one, ordered by a Marion County judge as a condition of bond in a child rape case, when prosecutors say he raped an 18-year-old woman at the same County Road 8054 property in March. The monitor recorded where he was. It did not stop what happened there.
The bond hearing came the same morning as a status hearing for Manson’s son, Steven Michael Manson, who faces six separate criminal cases. Both men appeared in court with a new attorney, and both are now headed toward trial early next year.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Russo asked Bailey to set the bond at $25,000 in cash. Defense attorney John Lofton asked for $10,000, telling the court a lower figure would leave his client better able to cover the monthly cost of the ankle monitor. Bailey settled on $15,000.
Bailey told the court he was required by law to set a bond. He did not appear pleased about it.
Article 2, Section 8 of the Arkansas Constitution says everyone charged with a crime is entitled to bail before conviction, unless the charge is a capital offense and the proof is evident or the presumption great. Manson Sr.’s most serious charge, conspiracy to commit rape, is a Class Y felony. It is not a capital offense.
That leaves a narrow path. A judge can revoke a bond and order a defendant held while a new hearing is set, which is what Bailey did on Aug. 5. At the hearing itself, a bond has to be set again.
Some states have broadened the list of charges that let a judge deny bail outright. Arkansas has kept its exception limited to capital offenses since 1874.
A defendant pays only a portion of a bond amount to be released.
Bailey revoked Manson Sr.’s previous bond on Aug. 5 at the state’s request, after Manson was arrested July 30 on drug and firearm charges. Investigators executing a search warrant at the County Road 8054 property reported seizing about 8.71 pounds of suspected marijuana packaged for sale and three handguns from a safe.
Manson Sr. was arrested on the no-bond warrant Aug. 13, eight days after it was issued.
Much of Tuesday’s argument turned on animals rather than drugs. Lofton told the court his client has more than 100 animals on the property with no one to tend them, and that Manson Sr. moved to Arkansas from another state and has few people nearby to help.
Russo pushed back. He told the court the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been to the property numerous times over animal violations.
Manson Sr. then spoke for himself over his attorney.
“The USDA has never one time been to my home,” he said. “My animals are perfectly, not sick whatsoever. Have a Heart checked my dogs and they said they’re in amazing condition. These are all lies.”
The account he gave the court conflicts with the record in several places.
Russo told Bailey that Manson Jr.’s mother owns the property and inherited it, and that she was appalled by its condition. She is now in Arkansas caring for the animals and is working with the state, Russo said. She does not live at the property and had been allowing the family to stay there.
Messages provided to the Observer show Have a Heart Animal Shelter has been removing dogs from the property for weeks. Fifteen dogs left Aug. 17, and nine more were scheduled to go out of state later in the week, which would bring the total to about 25. Roughly 10 or fewer remained on site.
Bailey told Lofton to find someone who could care for the animals while his client works on raising the bond money, and said the matter could be revisited at Manson Sr.’s next setting on Oct. 13.
Lofton also disputed the marijuana weight, telling the court the filing should read 8.7 ounces rather than 8.7 pounds. Russo checked the paperwork in front of him and told the judge the figure is pounds.
Lofton was retained only recently. He previously practiced with Eugene P. Clifford at Zenith Law in Little Rock and now works on his own.
Clifford withdrew from every Manson case in late July, citing a conflict of interest under Rule 1.7 of the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct. He had been representing all three defendants charged in connection with the same March incident.
Lofton told Bailey he had entered his appearance and filed a motion for discovery but had not yet had a chance to review the files, some of which he described as complex. Bailey agreed to reset the schedule and said Lofton is not yet familiar with the cases.
The judge set a status hearing for Dec. 8, a pretrial hearing for Jan. 12 and a jury trial for Feb. 10. He said the same schedule would apply across the cases and that the state can decide which one goes first.
Bailey also told both attorneys that any motion needing a hearing must be filed in time to be heard at the January date. Late filings only delay things for everyone, he said.
Manson Jr., 35, is a registered Level II sex offender. He is charged with rape and sexual assault in connection with a November 2025 assault on his 10-year-old stepdaughter, along with kidnapping, terroristic threatening and a firearm charge from the same period.
He bonded out of those cases on a combined $350,000. The March allegations followed, and all three Mansons were charged that month.
Manson Sr. is charged in that case with conspiracy to commit rape, terroristic threatening and coercion. A third defendant, Dezarae Shae-Lynn Manson, faces charges in a separate case. All three have pleaded not guilty.
