Bail Bonds Services Sanford | “Top 40 Celebrities Criminal Records With Mugshots”

Source      :   allwomenstalk.com
By          :  All Women Stalk
Category    :  Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Bail Bonds Services Sanford

They have it all: looks, money and in some cases parents with lots of money, or a sparkling career. However that doesn’t seem to be enough for some of them, they still cross the line and get in trouble with the law. Keep reading and see if your favourite celebrity is on the list or if he/she is still on the right side of the law.

40. Tonya Harding

This girl was once one of the greatest skating queens in the US. She won the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and she also became number 2 in the World Championships in 1991. However she’s most known because of the scandal in 1994 when her competitor Nancy Kerrigan was so harmed that she couldn’t compete in the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. It appeared that Harding’s ex-husband hired a man to do the harm to Kerrigan, and Harding knew about the attack before it took place. That’s not the only time Harding has been in trouble with the law though. In 2000 Harding was sentenced to 3 days in jail for punching her ex-boyfriend and throwing a hubcap on him. Two years later she was out driving her car drunk.

39. Kim Delaney

You might know Kim from the film The Force, or maybe from the television show NYPD Blue, which also gave her an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress. The police however knows her from something else since she was arrested for driving drunk in 2002. This gave her a $300 fine and two years probation.

38. Yasmine Bleeth

Yasmine was once one of the most beautiful celebrities in Hollywood. She was on several lists over beautiful and sexy women and you could see her in Baywatch for example. The success couldn’t keep her away from drugs though and in 2002 she was sentenced to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service for possessing cocaine and driving while impaired.

37. R. Kelly

Robert Kelly as he’s really named, is a well known R&B and pop singer as well as a songwriter. He’ve had huge hits with songs such as I believe I can fly, If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time and I’m Your Angel. This star is in some trouble now though. He’s facing 14 charges of having sexual intercourse with a minor and child porography and the trial will take place in May 2008. We’ll se how it all ends.

36. Mick Jagger

I’m sure you all recognize this man, even though he’s a bit older now than on the picture above. Mick Jagger is still going strong, and his band, the Rolling Stones have had many huge hits during the years. It’s actually one of the most famous bands ever and it might not come as a big surprise to you that bad boy Mick once was in trouble with the law. In 1972 he was arrested for assault and obstructing justice after a fight with a photographer. Jagger and his friends pleaded guilty and after that they were released and the charges were dropped.

35. Carmen Electra

Have you ever heard about Tara Leigh Patrick? Yes you have, but under a totally different name, Carmen Electra. This beauty is known from Baywatch, Playboy Magazine, but also movies such as Scary Movie and Meet the Spartans. In 1999 Carmen got into trouble, charged for misdemeanors after having a loud fight with her husband at that time, Dennis Rodman. She had to pay $2.500 in bail and was ordered to stay at least 500 feet away from Rodman, and vice versa.

34. Mike Tyson

Tyson was once a great boxer, but even though he was actually the youngest man ever to win the heavyweight championships, he’s mostly known for his crimes and for being a bad boy. When he was 13 he had already been arrested 38 times and the story continues… In 1992 he was sentenced to six years in prison for raping Miss Black Rhode Island. He served three years before he was released in 1995. In 2007 Tyson was sentenced to 24 hours in jail, 360 hours community service and three years probation for possesion of narcotics. Will the story continue or will Tyson finally get himself together and do something good with his life?

33. Jessica Sierra

Jessica was one of the finalists in the forth season of American Idol, and a really talented singer. However the drugs is giving her big problems. In november, 2007 Sierra was sentenced to 12 months probation for battery and possession of cocaine. Not even one month later she was arrested again for misdemeanor and in the beginning of 2008 she was sentenced to one year in rehab at a treatment center and that will be followed by three years probation.

32. Dennis Rodman

Dennis Rodman used to be a professional basketball player and he was a good one, well known for his rebounding ability and his defensive skills. He also used to be married to Carmen Electra and they both got into trouble after a fight in 1999. Rodman was charged with misdemeanor and had to pay $2.500 in bail and was ordered to stay at least 500 feet away from Electra. They were divorced the same year.

31. Natasha Lyonne

You probably saw this girl in American Pie 2 where she played Jessica. She’s a talented actress but also well known by the police. In 2001 she was arrested for driving drunk and the year after she got sentenced to 6 months probation, $750 fine and wasn’t allowed to drive for 6 months. In 2005 she was arrested again and charged for criminal mischief, harassment and trespassing and was sentenced to conditional discharge.

30. Dennis Hopper

This man is a great actor, one of the best really, and I’m sure you have seen him in films like Speed and Apocalypse Now. What some of you doesn’t now is that he was once in trouble with the law. It was long time ago, in Taos, Mexico. He was charged with careless driving, fleeing from accident and not informing police of the same accident. The sentence was $250 fine and 20 minutes in prison.

29. Nick Nolte

He’s a well known actor and also a producer, and he’s been nominated for the Academy Award. Unfortunately he’s also been having problems with alcohol for a long time and in 2002 he was arrested for driving under influence of drugs. The sentence was probation for three years as well as counseling and random drug testing.

28. Barron Hilton

Maybe it’s not easy as one could think to be a Hilton child. It sounds like a dream; fame, money, rich parents, but it has to mean something that both Paris and now Barron gets in trouble with the law. Younger brother Hilton was arrested in february, 2008 for driving under influence.

27. Robert Downey Jr.

He won the Golden Globe and was nominated for the Academy Awards. You’ve been able to see him in Iron Man, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Natural Born Killers, just to mention a few. Those of you who have seen him act knows that he’s a good actor. Unfortunately he’s also well known by the police. The first arrest came in 1996 when he was arrested for driving drunk and possessing of cocaine, heroin, crack and a Magnum revolver. He was sentenced to thee years probation, but the year after he violated parole and was sentenced 6 months in prison. In 2000 he was at it again, arrested for possessing of cocaine, and in 2001 he was arrested again for being under infuence of drugs. This time he wasn’t charged though. After that, he has been staying on the right side of the law, at least as far as we know, and let’s hope he keeps it that way.

26. Jennifer Capriati

She used to be the world number 1 female tennis player and she won three Grand Slam titles as well as an Olympic Gold Medal. She was really talented and will always be remembered for being the youngest player to win the French Open junior title and also the youngest player to be a semi-finalist at Wimbledon. In 1994 she was arrested for possessing marijuana and got a misdemeanor in exhange of taking drug counseling.

25. Kobe Bryant

It would be an understatement to say that this man is a good basketball player. He’s not. He’s one of the greatest ever. He plays for the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA and he’s an American All-Star shooting guard. In 2003 he was charged for rape, but the charge was dropped eventually. However Bryant apologized to the victim and some kind of financial compensation was made but details were never made public.

24. O.J. Simpson

This guy used to be an American football player in the 60’s and 70’s but sadly he’s mostly famous for his crimes. In 1994 he was charged for the murder of his wife Nicole Simpson and a friend of hers. Eventually he was found not guilty, but a civil trial found him liable for their deaths. Five years before that Simpson was sentenced to paying fines and 200 hours community service for beating his wife. In 2007 Simpson was arrested and charged for multiple felonies such as kidnapping with deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon and bruglary to mention some of them. He’s now risking to be put in prison with a life sentence.

23. Daniel Baldwin

He’s the second oldest of the famous Baldwin brothers. All of them are actors and of course this one too. You might have seen him in The Sopranos, Sidekick or Homicide: The Movie to mention a few of all the films he has played in. In 2006 he was arrested for grand theft auto and had to pay $20 000 bail, but the charge was dropped. The year after he was once again charged for auto theft but he’s now free on bail.

22. Mickey Rourke

You might have seen this guy in various films, since he’s a well known actor. He’s also known by the police since he was arrested in 1994 charged with spousal abuse after kicking and hitting his wife. The charge was dropped eventually. In 2007 it was time for another arrest. This time for driving drunk.

21. Steve-O

This man is crazy for sure, you will know that if you have seen him in Jackass where he is a real daredevil performer. He’s also been in trouble with the law several times, in the U.S. as well as in Sweden. In 2002 he was arrested and charged for obscenity and assault. After paying a lot of money in bond he was sentenced one year supervised probation. The year after he was arrested in Sweden for possession of marijuana and exstacy and had to pay a $6.700 fine. In march 2008 he was arrested once again for possession of a controlled substance and vandalism. He’s now on a treatment center and hoping to get free from the drugs.

20. Lil’ Kim

She’s a well known rapper and singer and she won a Grammy Award for her part in Lady Marmalade, 2002. Her first arrest took place in 1996 when she was arrested for possessing marijuana. In 2006 she was sentenced to one year and one day in prison plus a $50.000 fine for perjury and conspiracy.

19. Ozzy Osbourne

This guy is something really special and he’s still going strong. You might recognize him from the TV Show The Osbournes and of course from his role as lead singer in the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. In 1982 he was arrested in Texas for lifting up his dress and urinating on the Alamo, and two years later he was arrested again for public intoxication. In 1989 he was violently drunk and attempted to murder his wife Sharon.

18. Vanilla Ice

He is a rapper and an actor mostly known for the hit from the 90’s Ice, Ice Baby. He also won the American Music Award and was nominated for the Grammy Award. In 2001 he was arrested for putting his hand over his wife’s mouth and pulling some of her hair out. He was sentenced two years probation and had to take family counseling.

17. 50 Cent

You might have heard some of his music, for example his album Get Rich or Die Trying which was released in 2003. When he was 19 he pleaded guilty of selling heroin and crack cocaine and served six months in boot camp. In 2002 he was sentenced to two years probation for battery and assault.

16. Axl Rose

I’m fairly sure that you all recognize this guy, the singer of Guns’N Roses. He’s a great singer but also a bad boy and it would take me almost a life time to tell all about his criminal record since he’s been arrested more than 30 times. In 2006 he was arrested in Sweden after bitting a security guard’s leg while being drunk. He had to pay $6.000 in fines but was released after that.

15. Bill Gates

You didn’t expect to find this guy on the list, did you? The owner of Microsoft seems to be as little of a bad boy as one can possibly be, but he seems to have been more of a bad boy in his youth. In 1977 he was arrested for driving without a license and not stopping at a stop sign. This wasn’t the first time he got arrested though. In 1975 he was arrested for driving without a license and speeding. In 1989 he was arrested for driving drunk but that charge was reduced later on.

14. Christian Slater

Lots of women fell in love with this guy while watching him in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and True Romance. He’s a good actor and also really handsome. He’s also known by the police since he was arrested in 1994 for criminal possession of a weapon. He was sentenced to three days of community service.

13. Marilyn Manson

There are lots of different opinions when it comes to this man. Some people find him scary, while some people thinks he’s terrific and a really talented musician and artist. One thing is sure, he’s something really extra-ordinary. In 2001 he was charged for criminal sexual assault after rubbing his pelvis on the head of a security guard.

12. Tommy Lee

You can’t have missed this guy. He’s the drummer of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe and he’s been married to Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson, who he also have two kids with. This guy is a true bad boy and in 1999 he was charged for simple assault and was sentenced two years probation.

11. Eminem

This rap artist won the Academy Award and the Grammy Award several times in early 2000’s and he’s one of the most famous american rappers world wide. In 2000 he was charged with assault and having a concealed weapon. One month later he was charged again for having a concealed weapon.

10. Joshua Jackson

You’ve probably seen this guy in movies such as Scream 2, Urban Legend and Cruel Intentions. If not, you might at least have seen him in Dawson’s Creek. He was arrested in 2002 for assaulting a security guard at a hockey game, but he was released after paying $1.000 bail.

9. Mischa Barton

This beauty, well known from the TV serie O.C. was charged with four misdemeanors in early 2008. She had been driving under influence of alcohol, driving without a valid driver license and possessing marijuana.
8. Woody Harrelson

This terrific actor has won the American Emmy Award and the Academy Award. He’s been acting in movies such as Natural Born Killers and The People vs. Larry Flynt. In 1982 he was arrested for disorderly conduct when he was dancing in the middle of a street. He was charged for resisting arrest as well since he tried to escape from the police.

7. Nicole Ritchie

Nicole is the well known daughter of the singer Lionel Ritchie, and she’s also good friend of Paris Hilton. She also had one of the lead roles in the reality show Simple Life. In 2006 she was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Ritchie recently became mother of a little girl, so let’s all hope that this was the last time she was in trouble with the law.

6. Hugh Grant

This man has been playing the leading part in plenty of the best movies the last two decades. You might remember him from Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’s Diary or Love Actually, just to remind you of a few. In 1995 he was arrested for buying oral sex from a prostitute. He had to pay a $1,180 fine and he was also sentenced two years probation.

5. Kiefer Sutherland

He’s not the first and propably not the last celebrity to get arrested for driving drunk. The Golden Globe winning actor Sutherland did this twice and that made him end up in prison for 48 days. He was released in January 2008 after spending christmas as well as his birthday in jail.

4. Keanu Reeves

Have you seen Speed and The Matrix movies? If so I’m sure you enjoyed watching this handsome guy, who received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005. Just as so many other celebrities he’s done the mistake to drive under influence of alcohol though. He was arrested for it in 1993.

3. Matthew McConaughey

We’ve all been charmed by him in films such as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and The Wedding Planner. I’m not sure that the police was as charmed in 1999 when they arrested him in his home for possession of marijuana and violating the noise ordinance though. The drug charge was dropped but he pled guilty of violating noise ordinance and was sentenced to pay a $50 fine.

2. Lindsay Lohan

This girl started her career early and she’s been acting in Freaky Friday, Just my Luck, Herbie: Fully Loaded and Mean Girls for example. Unfortunately she’s been having problems with drugs and in 2007 she was arrested and charged for cocaine possession. Just a few months later she was arrested again for possessing of cocaine, transporting narcotics and driving under influence of drugs. She was convicted and the sentence was one day in jail, 10 days of community service, three years on probation and she was ordered to complete an 18-month alcohol education program.

1. Paris Hilton

Except from being the oldest of the kids in the Hilton (as in Hilton Hotels) family, she is also well known for her role in the reality show Simple Life. When it has been a big event in Hollywood you can be sure that you’ll se Paris in the pictures afterwards. She’s everywhere, or so it seems. In 2006 she was arrested for driving under influence of alcohol. Her driving license was suspended and she got a probation period for 36 months plus a fine. In the beginning of 2007 she was arrested twice for driving without a license and that gave her a sentence to serve 45 days in jail of which she had to serve 22.

Now you know who is a law-breaker and who is not. Who will be the next celebrity to get arrested? I’m fairly sure that we’ll have the answer soon. Keep your eyes open to see who it will be.

Source : allwomenstalk.com/celebrities-with-a-criminal-record/5/

Bail Bonds Services Sanford | “Facebook Gives Users More Control Over Third-party Apps”

Source        :   710keel.com
By              :   Danny Fox
Category    :   Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Bail Bonds In Orlando

Bail Bonds In Orlando

If you are among the one billion Facebook users here’s some good news for you. You now have more control over the way those third-party apps access your account.  Now that Face book has made some adjustments to the login feature, mobile app developers have to ask users separately for their permission to share their information back to Facebook.

In the past developers were required to ask for all permissions which included seeing your information and writing to your Facebook account on just one screen. This process more or less forced you to make a decision to say yes to everything or to decline to connect with Facebook all together. Now the requests to share your information appear on a separate screen. This makes it easier for you to know what you might be sharing for everyone to see.

Advocates for privacy have been pushing Facebook for some time now to give users more control over the apps. Now you can clearly see the type of data can be accessed and disclosed. According to Facebook’s blog post, the load time of the login has been improved so you can connect 31% faster. The reason so many apps use the Facebook login is because it makes the process of registration much easier which is an attraction for new users. Facebook boasts that the login is used around 850 million times each month for app sign-ups.

Source : 710keel.com/facebook-gives-users-more-control-over-third-party-apps/

Bail Bonds Services Sanford | “NSA’s Surveillance Reach Supreme Court Hasn’t ‘Gotten to’ Email”

Source        :   blogs.wsj.com
By              :   Wall Street Journal
Category    :   Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Roughly 75%: The National Security Agency, working with telecommunications companies, has built a surveillance system that can reach deep into the U.S. Internet backbone and cover 75% of traffic in the country, including not only metadata but the content of online communications. WSJ

Faces in the crowd: The federal government is making significant progress on a surveillance system that can identify faces in a crowd from a distance, raising concerns among some privacy advocates. NYT

Limits of transparency: The current surveillance controversy challenges the entire post-Watergate regime of ensuring executive branch accountability, writes William Galston of the Brookings Institution. WSJ

Miranda’s rights: The partner of Glenn Greenwald has retained two firms as he threatens legal action against the British government after being detained for nine hours at London’s Heathrow airport this past weekend. Am Law Daily

Paper trail: Supreme Court justices have a ways to go to understand technology such as Facebook, Twitter and even email, according to Justice Elena Kagan who spoke at a forum in Rhode Island on Tuesday. AP

Donor privacy: Nonprofit organizations, spanning the ideological spectrum, are seeking exemptions from a New York law requiring them to disclose who’s giving them money, arguing that donors could be endangered if their names were released to the public. NYT

501(c)(4) rules: A top House Democrat plans to file a lawsuit in federal district court Wednesday challenging how the Internal Revenue Service decides which groups qualify for tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations. Washington Post

Source : blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/08/21/nsas-surveillance-reach-supreme-court-hasnt-gotten-to-email/

Bail Bonds Services Sanford | “How To Get Out Of Jail”

Source         :   baxterbulletin.com
By                 :  Press Release

Bail Bonds Services Sanford

Bail Bonds Services Sanford

With several high-profile murder cases recently making their way through Baxter County Circuit Court, area residents have asked how bail bonds work, who can have a bond and how much a bond costs. To understand how the process functions using a bail bondsman, let’s imagine your Aunt Bessie walked into a local bank, pulled out a flintlock pistol and demanded money. She then hopped into her baby blue 1952 Nash Rambler and drove six blocks before being pulled over and arrested on a charge of armed robbery.

Aunt Bessie was then taken to the Baxter County jail, where she is being held in lieu of a $100,000 bond. You get a collect call from the jail and it’s Bessie, she’s sobbing and begs you to bail her out.

The process begins

Your first contact is with a bail bonding company. By state law, a bail bond company must charge a 10-percent fee to bond Bessie out of jail. That means you must hand the bail bondsman $10,000, which is the required 10 percent of her total bond. In addition, by law, the bonding company must charge $70 in fees. Of those fees, $20 goes to administration, $20 goes to the county where the bond was written, $20 goes to the public defender’s office and $10 goes to the state. Starting Thursday, another $10 will be collected, with $6 going to the local sheriff’s office and $4 going to a state fund to pay bonds, should a bonding company go out of business.

Let’s say you don’t have the $10,070 to bail Bessie out, but you do have $7,000, and you can get the other $3,070 soon. By law, a bail bonding company, if they choose, can bond Bessie out and collect the outstanding amount at a later date. “If someone has a $10,000 bond, a lot of people out here can’t afford that $1,000 to get them out of jail,” said Brett Vaughn, owner of Affordable Bail Bonds. “If the law did not allow for financing bonds, only the rich would get out of jail. The rich people would get out, the poor people would stay in.”

Source : baxterbulletin.com/article/20130813/NEWS01/308130012/How-get-out-jail

Bail Bonds Services Sanford | “Poll: Race Relations Have Plummeted Since Obama Took Office”

Source         :  dailycaller.com
By             :    Neil Munro
Category     :  Bail Bonds Services Sanford
Posted By   :  Skilled Bail Bonds

Bail Bond Service-Obama Took Office

Bail Bond Service -Obama Took Office

Public attitudes about race relations have plummeted since the historic election of President Barack Obama, according to a new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Only 52 percent of whites and 38 percent of blacks have a favorable opinion of race relations in the country, according to the poll, which has tracked race relations since 1994 and was conducted in mid-July by Hart Research Associations and Public Opinion Strategies. That’s a sharp drop from the beginning of Obama’s first term, when 79 percent of whites and 63 percent of blacks held a favorable view of American race relations.

Negative views on race relations have also increased substantially. According to the poll , 45 percent of whites and 58 percent African-Americans now believe race relations are very or fairly bad, compared with 2009, when  only 20 percent of whites and 30 percent of blacks held an unfavorable view. Although the NBC/WSJ survey addressed the politically fueled Trayvon Martin controversy only obliquely (asking how the acquittal of George Zimmerman in Martin’s shooting death had affected respondents’ views of the legal system), the survey’s historical time frame — which shows the steepest declines in positives and increases in negatives coming in the last two years — suggests the firestorm over the Martin case played a role in diminishing the high solidarity between whites and blacks that was exemplified by Obama’s election.

By November 2011, three years after Obama’s election, only 22 percent of whites and 41 percent of African-Americans believed that race relations were fairly bad or very bad. Positive views have fallen correspondingly since November 2011, when 75 percent of whites and 57 percent of blacks said race relations were either good or very good.

Obama garnered intense criticism in March 2012 for weighing in on the shooting death of Martin, announcing, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” Obama went a step further in July 2013, after the acquittal of neighborhood watchman Zimmerman in Martin’s death, declaring, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” As The Daily Caller reported, the Obama administration’s Justice Department sent a unit with a history of anti-white racial advocacy to Sanford, Florida to help facilitate protests in the area calling for Zimmerman’s prosecution in 2012, including a major rally headlined by activist Al Sharpton.

The bitter 2012 election, which saw Obama running on a stagnating economy and his supporters mounting intense attacks on challenger Mitt Romney, may also have contributed to the souring of race relations. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which steadfastly supports the Obama administration, distributed pro-Obama election flyers in 2012 with lynching and Ku Klux Klan imagery. Although these efforts may have helped boost African-American turnout to record levels and deliver the key states of Florida and Ohio to Obama, they do not appear to have done much for black Americans. The black unemployment rate in the United States is currently 13.7 percent, more than six points higher than the national unemployment rate, which stands at 7.6 percent.

Overall, the public’s view of race-relations has fallen back to levels reported in 1994 and 2007. The increased division is a long way from the hope for improved race relations that fueled and accompanied Obama’s 2008 victory. “It’s all about the coalition of the willing,” Michael Stewart, a progressive activist, told The Chicago Tribune in November 2009. “I’ve come to appreciate people as individuals, not by their race  there’s more a focus on what we have in common than what divides us.”

Bail Bonds Work In Sanford | “Collections Rise For Bail Bond No-Shows”

Source         :  brownsvilleherald.com
Category     :  Bail Bonds Work In Sanford
By              :  MARK REAGAN
Posted By   :  Skilled Bail Bonds

Bail Bonds Work In Sanford

Bail Bonds Work In Sanford

Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said his office may collect twice as many outstanding bail bonds this year compared to last, but the effort, he admits, hasn’t received enthusiastic reviews from the county bail bond community. “They have not reacted kindly, you know,” Saenz said. “They believe that I shouldn’t collect it and of course I disagree with that.” Last year, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office collected nearly $112,000 in outstanding bail bonds stemming from defendants who didn’t show up to court.

“This year, we were already at $145,000,” Saenz said. “Right now, we’ve already surpassed all of last year’s collections, and we’re hoping to still do a lot better than that. We surpassed it all in just these first seven months.” The collected outstanding bonds are deposited into Cameron County’s general fund and the District Attorney’s Office gets 10 percent of the collections. Sandra G. Cantu, owner of A. Lone Star Bail Bonds and a member of the Cameron County Bail Bond Board, said the bail bond community has had mixed feelings about Saenz’s collection efforts.

“What I’ve heard from my colleagues is some people are not happy with it and some say it’s fine. I think what has to be done has to be done,” Cantu said. “There are some who don’t pay forfeitures. I’ve, personally, paid all mine. And one of my colleagues says, ‘Well, we’re paying the price for other people being irresponsible. Everybody is being affected by the wrong decisions that other companies made.’”

Saenz said two companies — Andrade Bail Bonds and America Bail Bonds — have already closed this year because of his office’s collection efforts. “But by having those two companies go out of business, that just creates more business for the good companies. So basically, it’s going to come down to survival of the fittest,” Saenz said. “You know, so if you run your company with business-like principles, you’ll survive. If you run your company with business principles that aren’t adhered to, then you won’t survive. That’s just it, like it is in the real world with any other kind of business.”

Saenz said he understands and respects the negative reaction he received when he called the 35 bail bond companies together to talk about the new rules that he says are modeled after El Paso and Tarrant counties’ bail bond board rules. But a good bail bond can quickly become a bad bail bond, Cantu said. “Being in a bonding company can be risky. You just have to be wise about it,” Cantu said. “There are some things you just can’t help.”

For instance, she bonded out a young man who was charged with a Class A misdemeanor. The man was going to get probation, but his friends scared him out of going to court and he didn’t show up for his appearance. “So that bond in a second turns into a bad bond,” she said. “You know, sometimes it can go sour real quick in a hurry, and in those cases we do our best to find the defendant.”

The man was booked into Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito last week, she said. The new regulations provide a timeline for how long a bail bond company has to get a defendant who failed to appear back into court before having a judgment against it. And it also sets out a timeline for negotiating settlements. In 2012, there weren’t any regulations and outstanding bail bonds were reviewed by a case-by-case basis, Saenz said.

“The purpose was to be consistent and avoid any claims of favoritism,” he said. “I didn’t want to go with that so we came up with these guidelines.” The goal, however, is not making money, he said.  “I want the defendant in court. I don’t see my collection process as being a money-making scheme for the county. I see it as my way of forcing these companies to bring the defendant to court. That’s what I want,” Saenz said. “I don’t want your money. I want the guy in court. That’s my priority. My priority is to get the defendant in court because I have a case to prosecute.”

And at the same time, Saenz says he doesn’t want to put bail bond companies out of business because they are an integral part of the judicial process.  “I recognize that the bail bond companies are part of the system. I recognize that they contribute — they’re players in the criminal justice system. And I recognize that they provide a legitimate service, i.e. they take people out of jail and when someone is released from jail that means tax payers don’t have to pay for that individual to be in jail for $50 a day,” Saenz said.

Cantu said she was talking to an old-timer in the Cameron County bail bond business who told her bondsmen used to be officers of the court.  “Now we’re just bondsmen and are seen as just trying to make a dollar. I see myself as a reputable person. I personally think I have a fantastic job. I see myself as another part of the process,” Cantu said. “But It’s a really touchy situation right now. There’s bondsman that are really really upset.”

But Cantu admits that if a company is complying with the rules, everything should be fine. “It’s very mixed emotions right now,” she said.

And for Saenz, this will be the policy as long as he is in charge of the District Attorney’s Office. “We just adopted them in June and like with anything else, as we go through them and find little issues of problems, we will tweak them. I’m amenable to working with them and if they raise a concern, that’s legitimate, I’ll be happy to work with them on that. I’m not here to put them out of business,” Saenz said. “It’s about getting defendants to court and collecting judgments that are owed to the county. That’s my duty.

Source : brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_1789b200-f7f8-11e2-8b23-0019bb30f31a.html