Cavallo Sentenced to Jail Time in Bail Scheme

A prominent defense attorney was sentenced Friday to six months in jail for paying a pair of bail bondsmen to steer business his way, marking the latest chapter in a broadening drama involving indicted Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona and his inner circle.

Joseph G. Cavallo, who gained notoriety representing the son of a former assistant sheriff in a sexual assault case, has until March to surrender. His license to practice law will be suspended as of Monday by the State Bar of California, which will ultimately determine whether he should be disbarred.

Cavallo, 52, could have been sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty earlier this year to three felonies in a kickback scheme in which he paid $50,000 to the Xtreme Bail Bonds agents for inmate referrals between June 2003 and August 2005.

Cavallo left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. His attorney, John D. Barnett, had argued his client should serve no time behind bars because he was less culpable than the bail agents -- Jorge Andres Castro and Alejandro de Jesus Cruz. The agents were each sentenced earlier this year to four-month terms.

But Orange County Superior Court Judge Carla M. Singer agreed with the sentence recommended by Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh. Although moved by letters from Cavallo's ex-wife and other supporters, she said Cavallo was the mastermind behind the conspiracy, and that corruption of the criminal-justice system was unsettling for everyone.

With the sentencing behind him and his law career up in the air, Cavallo remains a key figure in an ugly series of criminal and civil proceedings that have destroyed relationships between Carona and some of his once-closest political allies.

Cavallo first stepped into the public limelight with his aggressive defense of Gregory Haidl, son of former Orange County Assistant Sheriff Donald Haidl. The younger Haidl and two of his friends were accused of plying a 16-year-old girl with alcohol and sexually assaulting her in 2002 at his father's Corona del Mar home.

The attorney drew the ire of prosecutors and others with his courtroom attacks on the girl's credibility, starting with an opening statement in which he depicted her as a sex-crazed teen who sold drugs to children. After two sensational trials, Haidl and his co-defendants were convicted and are now serving six-year prison terms.

Cavallo later defended George Jaramillo, another former assistant sheriff and a onetime Carona confidant.

Jaramillo, once seen as Carona's eventual successor, was accused of using his position to help a Newport Beach businessman promote a laser device that would disable fleeing cars. Cavallo eventually took himself off the case, which ended with Jaramillo being sentenced to a year in jail. He was released last month after completing his sentence.

Cavallo now has a civil claim pending against the sheriff, accusing him of bullying and threatening him for representing Jaramillo.

Cavallo also has sued Haidl, alleging that the former assistant sheriff stiffed him on his legal fees in the son's sexual assault case.

Most recently, Cavallo, Haidl and Jaramillo have been cooperating with the federal government in a corruption case against Carona. The sheriff, his wife and his former mistress are targeted in a sweeping indictment that accuses Carona of engaging in a broad conspiracy to sell access to his office for tens of thousands of dollars and gifts. All three have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail.

One of the allegations in the indictment that has struck a chord of outrage among the rank and file is that the sheriff steered employees and their relatives to Cavallo as part of a kickback scheme that sources allege was hatched by the two men, the sheriff's mistress, Haidl and Jaramillo. Carona and the others allegedly agreed that Cavallo should kick back a share of proceeds from cases referred to him.

In one of these cases, Carona allegedly urged the wife of a deputy to hire Cavallo during a hospital visit as her husband lay dying.

Bail Bondsmen Have a Dangerous Job

Bail bondsman David Dunn said he was a split second from kicking in an apartment door when his partner yelled.

"She's got a gun,” Carol Franklin said.

The woman inside the apartment turned and aimed at Franklin.

Franklin, who stood outside a window looking into the apartment, threw herself to the ground. Halfway down, she heard the gun's bang, she said. The rifle blast missed.

The bail bondsmen were at the Yukon apartment to detain Vicki Sanders, 45, who had skipped an Oklahoma County District Court appearance. Sanders had a signed bond through Abraham's Bail Bonds in Oklahoma City.

Sanders was shot and killed Monday night by Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers after a nearly six-hour standoff.

Dangers of bounty hunting
The danger of the job is nothing new to Dunn, but the reality of how close he came to losing his life hit hard as he went home Monday night, he said.

"You can try and avoid death ... and I've had near misses,” Dunn said. "But to have one like that, it's nothing but good luck and the grace of God. It really does make you stop and think about everything you do out there.”

Grace of God and the help of a good friend such as Carol Franklin, Dunn said.

"The thing that scared me the most was when I looked through the window knowing that my partner was about to kick the door in and she's sitting there aiming a rifle at the door,” Franklin said. "At that point my fear wasn't for myself, my fear was that I was about to lose my partner if I didn't do something quick.”

Franklin said she normally doesn't go to the back window or door. She's usually the one kicking in the door. Had she not been at that window, Dunn likely would have been killed, she said.

Bail jumper
Sanders' mother, Patsy McFadden had co-signed the bond, Dunn said.

Although not needed lawfully to enter a residence where a known bail jumper lives, Dunn and Franklin obtained written permission from McFadden to kick the door in, Dunn said.

McFadden, who told the two bondsmen that Sanders was bipolar and off her medication, said there were no weapons in the home, Dunn said.

They first tried a ruse.

"Carol knocked on the door, said some kids were throwing rocks at Sanders' car,” Dunn said. "That didn't work. She wouldn't answer the door.”

Franklin walked around to the side of the downstairs apartment to a window that was open about 8 inches with the blinds pulled down, she said.

She peered in through the window and saw the armed woman on the couch. She yelled to David, and the woman spun and fired, Franklin said.

Franklin said and she and Dunn called Yukon police.

A short time later, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol arrived with its tactical team.

The two bondsmen watched from nearby as troopers sent in a robot, then fired tear gas and flash bangs.

Franklin said she thought the armed woman may have shot the robot. There was a hail of gunfire and the ordeal was over.

"It's sad because she may have been ill,” she said. "But she wasn't going to go to court, and she wasn't going to come out of the apartment.”

Colorado Bondman’s Website to Help Bail Professionals

A Denver bondsman and bounty hunter has a new way to track down fugitives. Ben Mares started a website called rewards4fugitives.com.

He said, "the website itself is just a posting avenue for bondsmen to put their people up there. the public can see who's wanted and can contact that bondsman."

Rewards range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, paid by the bondsmen.

They say if they turn fugitives into the court, they save money. And bondsmen say this website is already working. John Trujillo had a fugitive featured and within 24 hours, he had several tips.

He said, "you could knock me over with a feather. I was surprised. I didn't think I would get so many tips within a 24 hour period."

Bond Grrrl: Utah’s Reata Holt Could be TV’s Next Bounty Hunter

When you hear the knock at the door and through the peephole see a tall, friendly looking woman with light-brown, shoulder-length hair and gold hoop earrings, think twice about opening—that is, if you have any outstanding warrants.

The woman could be Reata Holt, Utah bounty hunter. Then again, Holt’s agents, with Tasers at the ready, would already have surrounded your home by the time she knocked.

Bondsmen Lament New Jail Policy on Misdemeanors

Local bondsmen say the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center's new policy to not accept most misdemeanor offenders is bad for business. At least one is considering layoffs.

"The phones aren't ringing and the people aren't coming in," Mac Guedry, president of Cajun Bail Bonds, said. Misdemeanors accounted for more than 60 percent of his business, and he doesn't know how he'll keep paying his 12 employees if business doesn't pick up.

Bail Agent: 'Rambo Wannabes' Hurt Image

Bounty hunters in Michigan are not licensed by the state, but some carry badges similar to police badges and, sometimes, loaded weapons.

And they don't need a search warrant to enter a residence to catch a bail jumper.

That's because when a bonding agency posts bail for someone charged with a crime, the defendant signs a document essentially waiving their constitutional rights, local bounty hunter Shaun Lewis said.

Muncie Bail Bondsman Tries To Halt Bail Skipping

Skipping out on bail is a big no-no. A local bail bond spot is doing all it can to stop the rise in felons jumping ship.

The statistics are staggering across the nation, according to the US department of Justice. Nearly one fourth of all defendants on bail fail to appear in court when they're supposed to. The owner of Bad Boys Bail Bonds in Muncie, Jeff Catron, says that it's simply bad business to let felons skip.

“We simply can’t afford it,” he said.

Catron, a bounty hunter, himself, added that building an information file on a criminal is the best way to keep those who break the law in check.

“Big files always help you keep track of criminals.”

Catron said his bail bond agency tries to live up to their slogan each day--that being, "Your freedom is our business."

The agency offers free bond advice in jails across east central Indiana.

Bail Bondsman Says Relationships And Location Are Secrets To Success

In a previous career, Frank Kopczynski was a hospital administrator who helped failing hospitals get on their feet. But 20 years ago, he found himself at a professional crossroads.

After his contract with a New Jersey hospital expired, he was faced with either relocating with his employer to northern Michigan or returning home to Florida. He chose the latter, and spurred by a casual suggestion by his daughter's boss, decided to take a chance on the bail bond industry.

Fortunately, the business know-how, marketing tactics and people skills he developed during his time in health care made the transition much smoother than he had imagined.

After passing the required two-week course and receiving his license, Kopczynski opened Action Plus Bail Bonds in April 1988. Soon after, he acquired some industry training at St. Petersburg College and fell in love with the trade.

Billboards On The Way To County Prison Show The Competitive Side Of Bail Industry

Bail USA Inc. wants you. If you can't post bond to get out of jail, that is.

Anyone traveling East King Street can read all about it, thanks to an advertisement prominently displayed on the side of a building two blocks away from the prison, at North Plum.

The positioning of the sign is deliberate, said Cheryl Burns, the president of Bail USA, Greenville, Mercer County.

The Lancaster County population is rising. The prison is jammed.

The bail-bond field also appears to be growing, according to Vincent Guarini, the prison warden.

"It's competitive," Guarini said. Inmates' families put up the bond money in most cases, he added. But if someone can't make bail "they can shop around."

A courthouse directory lists 23 company-affiliated bail bondsmen and seven bail surety services, several with distant headquarters in cities such as Baltimore, Md., Houston, Texas, and St. Petersburg, Fla.

To make matters more competitive, the Bail USA Web site says, judges are trying to combat prison overcrowding by setting "easy" 10 percent bail.

And so the word is going out.

"We're just doing a little more advertising in the Lancaster County area," Burns said. "We put up billboards in Allegheny County and Pittsburgh about a year ago and we found it's a good way to get our name recognized."

The reaching out is recent. But Bail USA is a national company founded in 1982 and operating in 42 states through independent contractors.

The Lancaster County Clerk of Courts office lists three agents with Bail USA's affiliate, the Seneca Insurance Company Inc., also of Greenville.

One of the agents is a Mifflintown man who Burns said worked for Bail USA for 20 years. The other agents live in Quarryville and Lancaster, according to the courthouse directory.

While many companies handle bonds for business transactions, Burns said, Bail USA focuses solely on bail surety underwriting.

"It's a service we provide that brings down the prison population."

The state regulates all bail bondsmen, Guarini said.

"It's not like 'Dog the Bounty Hunter,' " he added, referring to the tumultuous TV reality show.

"They're pretty selective about who they take," Guarini said. Companies get back the money they've posted plus a service charge when their clients show up for trial.

"They play the risks. If the guy takes off, they lose the bond."

Bondsmen, Houston City, Frustrated with Maximus

City officials, at their wit's end with the company they hired to turn municipal courts into an electronic operation, this week threatened to sue unless the company fixes problems with the $10 million system.

Aside from causing headaches for city officials overseeing the transition, the flawed system has resulted in longer waits for the thousands of residents, lawyers and bail bondsmen who navigate the courts each day, and frustration for those who work there.

The city is giving Maximus Inc. until Thursday to provide a plan for making its work meet expectations.

"We said, 'It's really up to you Maximus. You tell us how you're going to keep Houston as a long-term client, how you're going to satisfy all your requirements, or we're going to declare you in default," said Richard Lewis, the city's director of information technology.

Repeated calls to Maximus for comment this week were not returned. In the past, spokeswoman Rachael Rowland has said the company was working to fix system bugs.

The computer upgrade, a goal of city officials since the late '90s, was supposed to be completed within a year and a half after the City Council approved the contract in April 2003. More than four years later, it still is not working properly.

"The computer system slows the operation down and kind of makes it unpleasant" to work there, said traffic lawyer Lawrence Rousseau. Since the system went live in April 2006, he has nicknamed municipal courts "the tar pit" because it is easy to get stuck there all day.

While some administrative tasks have been simplified with the transition to electronic from paper, the system is cumbersome and slow. It often takes longer than it should to complete simple tasks, such as processing bonds and setting cases for trial.

To process a bond, for example, clerks must work their way through 19 computer screens, and it takes 7-10 seconds for each new screen to appear, Lewis said. Loading a docket, a common task for judges, can take up to 10 minutes, he said.

"We believed the system was going to make our jobs simpler and in some cases it has made our job more complex," Presiding Judge Berta Mejia said.

'Enough already'
Because the city has warned Maximus before that its work has not met expectations, some city officials do not think they should get another chance.

"Enough already," said Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck. "This does not meet the basic terms of the contract, we've got taxpayer money on the line and it's time to cut our losses and move on."

Lewis said it is in the city's best interest to be patient. "But it's not going to last very much longer," he said.

The company, based in Reston, Va., is one of the largest providers of outsourced government services software, said Charles Strauzer, an analyst with CJS Securities, who covers those companies. The systems business is a small portion of Maximus' workload, he said, adding that it has not been profitable the past few years.

Group suggested changes
Since the city is unsatisfied with Maximus' work, officials hired an independent group, The Mitre Corp., a nonprofit organization that helps governments use information technology systems, to assess the project this summer. Mitre found that Maximus met most of the functional requirements defined in the contract, but did not meet technical requirements, which are essential for user reliability. In other words, the system is not capable of dealing with the 2.1 million cases the court sees each year.

The group recommended that Maximus replace its technical software and create a separate system for parking citations to reduce the load. Lewis said the company is considering those suggestions.

"They (Maximus) have been saying the right things, and they've deployed a bunch more resources down here in the last six months," Lewis said. "Whether or not that's enough is another whole matter."

School Boards Want Less Relief for Forfeited Jail Bonds

Fines and forfeitures of jail bonds account for more than $60 million in school funding across the state. But collecting that money was not always such a high priority.

In the criminal case of James Marvin Johnson, for example, his brother, Donald Johnson, put up his home and Lillington business, C&J Auto, to cover the $225,000 bond.

James Marvin Johnson remains on the run after skipping out on bond in the 1999 rape of a 12-year-old girl. By law, Donald Johnson was supposed to pay the full amount when his brother bolted.

A well-known businessman, Johnson pleaded with the court and school board for relief, saying he spent about $50,000 to track down his brother.

Court records show Johnson eventually paid $10,000 of the $225,000. He said he feels like he got off easy.

"They could have took everything I had. My business and all," he said.

Johnson's gain was the schools' loss. In 2006, Harnett County took in more than $549,663 from fines and forfeitures, while Wake County raked in close to $6 million. So far in 2007, Johnston County has gained approximately $600,000 from bail bonds.

Johnston County Board of Education attorney Jim Lawrence said school systems are working harder than ever to collect.

"That's $600,000 for classrooms. ... And why not follow them up and get whatever money we can?" he said.

Durham bondsman Tony Woods, president of the North Carolina Bail Agents Association, said a change in the law makes it much tougher now to get relief on forfeited bonds.

Still, Woods believes that many courts treat family and friends with far more leniency.

"The layperson is not held to the standard of the bail bondsman when it comes time to pay," Woods said. "No, that's not (fair)."

There have been signs that courts are toughening up on those kinds of forfeitures. Harnett County School Board Attorney Duncan McCormick, who approved the reduction in the Johnson bond, said he probably would not have allowed it today.

As for himself, Donald Johnson said he has learned his lesson about ponying up for bonds.

"I will never sign a bond again as long as I live," he said. "If you run, you're guilty. ... The Bible says to forgive, but I never forget."

Police Shoot Gunman in City Hostage Standoff

A gunman who held his girlfriend hostage for more than five hours Tuesday in a Lansing motel room was shot and injured after police stormed the room.

The gunman, who police did not identify, was taken to a local hospital with unknown injuries. The woman, who police also did not identify, was not injured.

At about 2 p.m., a bounty hunter, who was looking for another woman, knocked on the door of the ground-floor room at the Super 8 Motel off South Cedar Street, but was not allowed in, said Janelle Hathaway, 22, of Lansing, who identified herself as the bounty hunter's sister. He then walked around to an outside window and saw the man with a gun, she said.

Muncie Bail Bondsman Fights Skipping

Skipping out on bail is a big no-no. A local bail bond spot is doing all it can to stop the rise in felons jumping ship.

The statistics are staggering across the nation, according to the US department of Justice. Nearly one fourth of all defendants on bail fail to appear in court when they're supposed to. The owner of Bad Boys Bail Bonds in Muncie, Jeff Catron, says that it's simply bad business to let felons skip.

“We simply can’t afford it,” he said.

Catron, a bounty hunter, himself, added that building an information file on a criminal is the best way to keep those who break the law in check.

MU Bail Bonds Gets Students Out

It’s 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and MU junior Josh Kayser is expecting to receive calls from people he’s never met.

Kayser is the sole owner and agent of MU Bail Bonds, a business he said can be stressful but is “pretty interesting.”

Bail Bondsmen Acquitted

A Mobile trial of a bail bondsman and his employee charged with kidnapping ended in an acquittal late Tuesday afternoon for both defendants.

Former Mobile County sheriff's candidate Clint Ulmer, 43, and an assistant, 25-year-old Bobby Crook, went on trial Monday before Circuit Judge Rick Stout, accused of kidnapping a woman from the downtown McDonald's fast-food restaurant on Government Street in January 2006.

However, even before jurors began deliberating late Tuesday afternoon, Stout told them that since the trial began, he found no elements in the case justifying a charge of second-degree kidnapping.

Instead, Stout said, the jury would have to decide whether Ulmer and Crook committed a lesser offense -- unlawful imprisonment in the second degree.

After about an hour of deliberations, the jurors decided that the men were not guilty of even the lesser charge.

According to testimony, the chain of events leading to this week's court case began with the arrest of Janai Napier, who was charged with receiving stolen property in late 2005 and for whom Bandit Bonding agreed to stand bail.

When she missed a court date in January 2006, Ulmer and Crook went to her mother's job at the Government Street McDonald's, placed Gwendolyn Napier in handcuffs and later drove her around a city block before returning her to the McDonald's parking lot, according to testimony.

The prosecution argued that this act was an illegal attempt to bully and intimidate Napier into leading the men to her daughter. The defense argued it was a matter of mistaken identify, with Ulmer and Crook believing the mother was the daughter.

Stout said that his decision on the original kidnapping charge hinged on whether Napier was held in "secret" during her brief encounter with Ulmer and Crook.

Since several McDonald's employees and even some police officers were aware that the men had taken Napier away, it could not have been secret, Stout said.

Assistant District Attorney Ella Byrd argued in the end that while Napier was confined inside Ulmer's vehicle she was being unlawfully imprisoned.

During cross-examination by Ulmer's defense attorney, Buzz Jordan, Gwendolyn Napier acknowledged that until recent years she had had an illegal drug problem, had accumulated her own string of arrests over the years and had used perhaps as many as 15 aliases.

She had been clear of both drugs and criminal behavior for years, Byrd later pointed out.

Jordan and Crook's defense attorney, John Wayne Boone, questioned the mother's veracity and her motives for waiting months before filing kidnapping charges against their clients.

The attorneys also pointed out that since the incident at McDonald's, Napier had initiated a civil suit that as of July was seeking $1.5 million in damages against the bail bondsmen.

For Clooney “Bounty Hunter” May be a Bad Word

George Clooney says paparazzi should respect the rules of the road.

A video clip posted on TMZ.com shows Clooney pulling off to the side of a street, then saying to photographers: "You can drive all you want, you can take my picture all you want, but what you cannot do is put people in danger."

"There are no rules now," he says, comparing paparazzi to "bounty hunters."

"What they're doing is illegal," the actor says. "It's high-speed chases."

Agency to Bail and Hire Accused

The Metro Manila Development Authority yesterday backed a proposal to give detainees a chance to bail out under the agency’s Trabaho, Trabaho program.

General manager Robert Nacianceno said the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, represented by Director Serafin Baretto Jr., attended the meeting of the Metro Manila Council to work out a plan with Chairman Bayani Fernando to recruit inmates with bailable offenses for jobs as street sweepers, masons, painters, plumbers or camineros.

“The board of BJMP heard the chairman’s announcement that the authority is willing to accept applicants [who] have not yet been convicted by the court,” he told Standard Today.

Nacianceno said Baretto’s scheme would help decongest city jails, enable the detainee to post a bail, live a normal life and earn enough to pay back the bondsman.

The agency’s Public Safety chief Ramon Santiago said the “Bail Now, Work Now, Pay Later” plan would fit in the agency’s employment- generating drive.

“The payment of bond would be derived from the salary of the released person,” he told Standard Today, referring to the qualified inmate’s temporary liberty.

“Only indigent detainees would have the privilege. MMC has not yet resolved the proposal. But Chairman Fernando is considering its approval.”

At the council meeting were Las Piñas City Mayor Vergel Aguilar, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Parañaque City Mayor Florencio Bernabe, Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian along with Metro Manila Councilors’ League president Serafin Bernardino, Quezon City Vice Mayor Herbert Bautista, and representatives of the other localities.

Bail Bondsman Claims Bonding Process Takes Too Long

The time it takes to bond an inmate out of the Benton County Jail varies substantially from Washington County, according to a bondsman who routinely writes bonds at both jails.

Curt Clark, a bonding agent with Action Bail Bonds, said on average it may take up to seven hours for the Benton County Jail to release someone after bondsmen give deputies the inmates' bonding paperwork.

Clark said at the Washington County Jail, he waits usually 15 to 30 minutes for an inmate to be released.

"I don't know what the problem is," Clark said of the Benton County Jail bonding process.

Capt. Hunter Petray, Benton County jail commander, said the time it takes to release inmates on bond depends how much paperwork they've accumulated. Court orders, property, jail records and bonding information are all checked before an inmate is released.

Deputies also verify the inmate doesn't have a warrant from another jurisdiction before release, Petray added.

One to two bonding deputies work each shift in Benton County.

Four detention deputies were recently assigned to work with Northwest Arkansas Immigration Criminal Apprehension Task Force, Petray said. Their loss means Petray's staff has fewer people to deal with matters such as bonds.

Petray asked to hire 10 deputies for the detention facility and was given two, he said.

The Benton County and Washington County sheriff's offices and the Rogers and Springdale police departments assigned officers to the task force. Officers received specialized training and have some immigration enforcement authority.

Deputies "do the best we can," Petray said. It's "not as simple" as walking someone out of the facility, he added.

Clark acknowledged Petray's explanation may impact the bonding process, but "it's just like any other business. It's hard to keep good employees."

Jana Brady of Bentonville took a friend to the Benton County Jail, who turned himself in at 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday on a misdemeanor charge.

Brady said she didn't expect the process to be quick but was entertaining her 1-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son while waiting on her friend.

At 2 p.m., she was given the bond paperwork to fill out and turned it back to the detention deputies, she said. The friend was officially released from the jail at 2:34 p.m.

Lt. Chris Reeser, who works in the Washington County Jail, said the time it takes to release an inmate from that facility varies depending on what's "going on."

Louann Eagle of Stilwell, Okla., bonded out a relative from the Washington County Jail on Saturday morning. The relative was arrested the night before on a misdemeanor charge.

Eagle said she arrived at the jail at approximately 10 a.m. A bondsman started the paperwork to release the relative at 10:15 a.m. and had it turned into detention deputies by 10:35 a.m.

The relative was released from the jail at 10:53 a.m.

The process of bonding out at Washington County Jail was quick, Eagle said. She added that she's never had to bond anyone out of the Benton County Jail.

Reeser said there are typically six booking deputies working on a shift with the release time averaging 15 to 20 minutes, Reeser said. Washington County detention deputies also verify property and paperwork before an inmate is released, he said.

Bill Browning Jr., an agent with First Arkansas Bail Bonds, said Washington County Jail has always been slow booking inmates into the jail but on average it takes 30 to 40 minutes "tops" to release them.

Browning agreed with Clark that the Benton County Jail can take "hours" to release an inmate.

"I honestly don't know what the holdup is," Browning said.

The Benton County Jail is overcrowded and needs a larger budget and staff, but Browning said "so much more plays into that" than staff shortage. He added it's the detention deputies' "attitude" which contributes to the timeliness of the bonding process.

AT A GLANCE

State Law On Bonding Timeliness

Tommy Reed, executive director with the Arkansas Professional Bail Bondsman Licensing Board, said there are no regulations or Arkansas statutes regarding the timeliness of releasing someone from a detention facility.

The issue of timeliness is an issue to be taken up with jail administration, Reed said.

Accountability and Bail Bonds

As an industry, private surety bail is severely misunderstood -- to the detriment of our public safety. In reality, bail bonds are appearance bonds. Bail agents track and monitor defendants to ensure they show up for court and receive their sentences. Surety bail has done so for generations at no cost to the taxpayer.

Last week, the Sentinel quoted Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary, who stated, "Criminals bail out of jail and return to the streets." This implies that issuing a bail bond creates additional crime. Keep in mind that the majority of criminals arrested in Orange County aren't released on surety bail bonds. In fact, approximately 65 percent of alleged criminals are released by unsecured means (e.g., simply promising to return to court for subsequent hearings). Surety bail isn't the issue. Unsecured pretrial-release practices are the problem.

Orange County has a multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded pretrial release program. As a division of the Orange County Jail, it's supposed to release only those inmates who meet strict criteria. But the jail is overcrowded; therefore, repeat offenders with multiple charges for theft and robbery, assault, drug-related crimes, arrest with violence, failures to appear and other serious crimes are being released without secured bail.

Judicial release is another form of pretrial release. In many instances, judges opt to release inmates on their own recognizance. In layman's terms, that means defendants simply have to agree to stay out of trouble and return to court for their trials. An administrative order written by the chief judge allows judicial release; however, such release should take into account a defendant's criminal history and his or her danger to the community, which isn't always happening. There is also the question of whether or not the administrative order complies with Florida Statute.

Not surprisingly, these alternatives are significantly less effective than private surety bail, according to a number of national studies. Why? The answer is simple: accountability. Commercial bail agents and the insurance company backing the bonds are monetarily responsible for defendants released on surety bail. If a defendant flees, the agent must return the defendant to jail or pay the court -- often large sums of money. Neither a judge nor pretrial services staff are held accountable when a defendant fails to appear in court.

The Orange County Corrections Department, which operates the jail, falls under the discretion of Mayor Rich Crotty and the Board of County Commissioners. Our elected leaders need to understand that emptying the jail as fast as possible in order to save money is bad public policy. So is spending millions of tax dollars on a pretrial release program that contributes to the soaring crime rate. Until accountability becomes the criminal-justice system's mantra, our quality of life in Central Florida will continue to deteriorate. Public policy affects public safety.

Suspect Arrested in Durham Man's Slaying

A suspect in the slaying of an 89-year-old Bragtown man surrendered on Monday evening, Durham County Sheriff Worth L. Hill announced.

Last Friday, the sheriff's office swore out warrants against Tory Jarel Nelson, 18, of 5121 Stanley Road, in the stabbing death of Charles Forest Davis. Davis was found dead in his home at 2913 Nellowood St. on Sept. 26.

Nelson surrendered to Barry Jones, of Barry Bail Bonds Inc., at 6 p.m. Monday. He was then taken to the Durham County magistrate's office, where detectives met him.