VIA the Times Gazette

By DAVID MELSON
A man suspected by police of scamming thousands of dollars from elderly Middle Tennessee residents was taken into custody after a high-speed chase Friday.

Allen Ray Harris, 33, walked out of woods near Chapel Hill to a waiting bail bondsman following a three-hour search by officers, Detective Sgt. Brian Crews of the Shelbyville Police Department said.

Harris has no fixed address and has been “floating from motel to motel across Middle Tennessee,” Crews said.

The chase resulted when detectives “lured” Harris to Bedford County, according to Crews.

“Last Thursday we received knowledge in reference to a guy going around Middle Tennessee taking advantage of the elderly claiming to do home repairs,” Crews said. “We came across a lady in Shelbyville who had been scammed.”

Detectives were unsuccessful in attempts to meet Harris within Shelbyville.

“We tried to lure him into Shelbyville but the closest we could get him was the Marathon market in Unionville,” Crews said. “We planned to serve him with warrants from Rutherford and Wilson counties.”

Harris sped off when he realized he was talking to police officers, heading north on U.S. 41A North at speeds of 85 to 100 mph.

“We tried to block him on Clardy Road where there’s only one way out,” Crews said. “He rammed Pat (Detective Lt. Pat Mathis) when he tried to block him and rammed Chucky (Detective Charles Merlo). We chased him to Highway 99 where he pulled over near Chapel Hill and fled on foot into a wooded area with heavy foliage.”

Harris remained in the woods for three hours as officers from the Bedford, Rutherford, Marshall and Lincoln County sheriff’s departments and Eagleville police scoured and surrounded the area. Bedford County’s police dog was brought in to help search.

“Phone contact was made with him through a federal agent and he came out of the woods and surrendered to a bondsman,” Crews said.

Harris has been charged with fraudulent use of a credit card and driving on a revoked license, police said.

Detectives said they knew of at least two individuals they say were victimized by Harris.

One woman was told bracing was needed under her home’s metal roof, Crews said, and both victims lost an estimated $10,000-15,000 each. Harris did little if any actual work, according to detectives.

Police are asking anyone who has had contact with Harris to contact them at 684-5811.

Officials with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department are warning residents to be aware of a bail bond scam in their area.

According to a release, the scam made it to the Crossville area close to two weeks ago.

The scam starts when a law enforcement officer from another jurisdiction calls and tells you someone you know has been arrested on an outstanding warrant and needs help to make bond. The person on the phone then asks that a certain amount of money be wired to another country.

Officials say the callers will know personal information about you which they have found online.

According to Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess, law enforcement officers will not call people and ask them to wire money. He urges those who receive these calls to contact the law enforcement agency to see if the person the caller has told you needs the money has been arrested.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC — A man police said shot a bail bondsman in the foot Nov. 5 while trying to avoid being taken into custody has been arrested in Michigan.

Winston-Salem police said the U.S. Marshal Service received information Wednesday that Lamont Develle King, 26, of 104 Penner St. Apt. E, had traveled to Michigan. Federal agents found King in Detroit.

King was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and trafficking cocaine. His bond information was not immediately available.

According to police, Michael Todd Smith and two colleagues with Surety Bonding went to 104 Penner St. to locate a wanted suspect. At 1:25 a.m., Smith and the two other bondmen forced open the door.

Inside, police said someone fired several shots from a handgun at the bondsmen. The bondsmen returned fire as the suspect went back into the apartment.

Smith, 43, of Thomasville, suffered a gunshot wound to one of his feet.

The police department’s Special Enforcement Team later entered the apartment but could not find King.

King was listed as an absconder from probation supervision, according to the N.C. Department of Correction website.

King received 18 months of probation in August 2009 for misdemeanor assault on a female and misdemeanor communicating threats, according to the correction department.

ST. LOUIS — A man who fired back at a pair of suspected robbers Saturday night near downtown is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds.

According to police, the 52-year old man was leaving a home when two unidentified males approached him in the 700 Block of Carr Street, demanding money. One of the suspected robbers pulled a handgun, shooting the man at least three times in the chest, throat and mouth.

The victim was armed, and returned fire; however, he did not know whether he hit his mark.

The 8:30 p.m. shooting was in the city’s Columbus Square neighborhood, just blocks from the Edward Jones Dome.

KMOX-AM (1120) reports that the victim, who is in critical condition, is a bail bondsman.

ST. LOUIS (KMOX)__ A St. Louis bail bondsman is in critical condition after being shot during a robbery Saturday night.

Police say the 52-year-old victim was struck in the chest, back and side shortly before eight p.m. at his home in the 700 block of Carr.

The bondsman fired back but police don’t know if either suspect was hit.  The victim’s name has not been released.

Three bills that aim to bolster protections for domestic violence victims cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

A-1491, sponsored by Assemblywoman Celeste Riley, D-Salem, imposes tougher bail restrictions on persons charged with violating domestic violence restraining orders.

At present, courts generally allow defendants who have violated domestic violence restraining orders to be released on bail after they post 10 percent of the amount of bail in cash. This bill would require defendants to post the full amount of the bail, either with cash, a surety bond, or bail bond.

And if the person is charged with a violation that constitutes a crime, their required bail would be upgraded to a minimum of $5,000. For a disorderly persons offense, the bail would be set at a minimum of $2,500.

“Given the emotional and physical trauma that victims have already been subjected to, they should be able to receive some measure of comfort knowing our laws do everything possible to protect their safety in the future,” Riley said.

A second bill, A-2258, sponsored by Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer, D-Essex, would make evidence surrounding a domestic violence restraining order admissible and relevant to determining if use of force to protect oneself was justifiable by an individual protected by the order.

A-2891, sponsored by Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Bergen, would allow victims of abuse to break a lease agreement and start anew without being penalized by future landlords.

The three bills now proceed to the full Assembly.

“I frankly think it’s a shame that we need to do laws like this but I’m really glad that we’re doing them,” Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, D-Hudson, said.

Bell’s Robert Rizzo cleared to get out of jail

By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
October 7, 2010

Satisfied that his $2-million bail is not from illegal activity, a judge rules that the ex-city administrator accused of public corruption can be released. He must wear an electronic monitoring device and surrender his passport

Two weeks after he and seven other Bell city leaders were arrested in a far-reaching public corruption case, former city administrator Robert Rizzo was cleared to be released from jail Wednesday after a Los Angeles County judge said she was satisfied the assets being posted for his $2-million bail do not come from illegal activity.

Rizzo, 56, cracked a slight smile but showed no other emotion as Judge Mary Lou Villar ruled that he could be released. She ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring device and to surrender his passport.

The former city manager’s attorney complained outside the courtroom that his client had been treated harshly by a district attorney trying to win public points as he runs for state attorney general. He said Rizzo should have been able to bail out of jail much more quickly and without such resistance from prosecutors.

“He is a piñata, a figurehead,” James Spertus said of the community anger directed at his client. “I hope the mob mentality subsides.”

Rizzo is the central figure in the Bell corruption case in which the mayor, council members and former administrators are charged with misappropriating more than $5.5 million from the small, working-class community.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley described Rizzo as “the unelected and unaccountable czar” who pocketed vast sums of money from the city treasury as if it were his personal cash box. Cooley described the level of alleged illegal activity in Bell as being “corruption on steroids.”

Along with Rizzo, authorities arrested Mayor Oscar Hernandez, council members Luis Artiga, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal, as well as former Councilmen Victor Bello and George Cole. Assistant City Administrator Angela Spaccia also was arrested. Bello and Mirabal have been unable to raise bail.

During a three-hour hearing Wednesday, Villar agreed that the five pieces of property that friends and relatives had pledged as collateral were worth more than enough to guarantee the $2-million bail and were not linked to Rizzo or the money he is accused of misappropriating.

The judge rejected an argument by prosecutors that a loan Rizzo’s mother-in-law made to Bell’s former assistant city administrator, Angela Spaccia, tainted all the relative’s assets.

Rizzo’s attorney said that five properties in Torrance and Los Angeles were more than sufficient collateral for bail and asked the former city administrator’s mother-in-law, Su Lin Chen Chiang, to testify that she was putting up her home, another property she owned and had more than $1 million from the sale of another house.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Max Huntsman tried to block Rizzo’s attempt to make bail by challenging the value of the homes, producing an earlier defense team analysis stating that the combined properties were worth less than $2 million.

Huntsman also questioned Rizzo’s mother-in-law about a $200,000 loan she provided to Spaccia, who apparently needed the money to buy a home in Idaho. Spaccia, however, never bought the house and returned half the money to Chiang.

Chiang did concede, however, that the money Spaccia returned to her was put into the same account she tapped to guarantee Rizzo’s bail.

It’s time to let the professionals solve the fugitive problem Philadelphia created.
By Dennis A. Bartlett

The Inquirer has chronicled the three-decade-plus decay of Philadelphia’s bail system, yielding an estimated $1 billion in red ink and 47,000 fugitives. Who is to blame for this breakdown? What’s certain is that it can’t be blamed on the commercial bail industry. Private bondsmen have been banned from the city since 1974.

In assessing the damage, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the state Senate Judiciary Committee, and the state Supreme Court have reopened the question of commercial bail. Could it help stop the hemorrhaging of defendants and public treasure? Should it be reintroduced in Philadelphia?

Not surprisingly, Temple professor John Goldkamp, an architect of the city’s failed system, opposes commercial bail. His view is endorsed by a phalanx of bureaucrats whose only proposed solution is to tune up a system with a proven genius for failure and prop it up with an expanded, expensive, and publicly funded cohort of public servants – in other words, not only more of the same, but more and more of the same.

Commercial bail cannot fix Philadelphia’s broken criminal-justice system. But it can help.

Commercial bail is an insurance policy for the city. If the defendant does not appear and a forfeiture judgment is executed, a commercial bail agency must pay the amount of the bond or lose its license. (Licensing fees are another source of revenue for the city.) So there is a powerful financial incentive to recover the absconder, and, if that fails, to pay the forfeiture and stay in business.

Under Philadelphia’s system, by contrast, bail bonds are junk bonds; there is nothing backing them up. If a defendant absconds, the city is out 90 percent of the bond in cases where defendants were required to post 10 percent, or 100 percent in other cases.

But can Philadelphia tolerate commercial bail’s success rate? If it’s so efficient at recovering fugitives, won’t it further clog the city’s already crowded jails?

Not necessarily. The number of bail-jumpers returned to custody would likely be offset by a higher number of defendants who are not confined while awaiting trial.

Furthermore, the cost of recovering fugitives would be borne solely by bonding agents, saving the city money on law enforcement and extradition.

A few other myths standing in the way of commercial bail can be easily dispelled, including:

Money bail does not work. That’s true in the case of the 10 percent deposit option now favored by Philadelphia. Criminals love this approach: They get out of jail for one-tenth of the cost of the bond, and there is almost nobody to pursue them when they skip. Many criminals, especially those in the drug trade, see the 10 percent option as the cost of doing business. But with commercial bail bonds, statistics show secured release works very well.

Bail agents are accountable to no one. Bail agents sell an insurance product. At a minimum, agents have to meet the state’s licensing and continuing-education requirements. They have to comply with business and professional codes. They have to honor their contracts with the courts and their insurance companies, which themselves must be admitted to practice in each state. And they are subject to taxes on insurance premiums and exposed to legal liabilities just as any other business is.

Law enforcement arrests most bail-jumpers. They don’t in Philadelphia. Bail agents return 97 to 98 percent of their skips. And there is evidence that fugitives thrive and find havens in jurisdictions that have no commercial bail, such as Philadelphia, Washington, and Multnomah County, Ore.

Bondsmen profit from others’ misfortunes. In this respect, commercial bonding is not very different from physicians, judges, corrections officers, attorneys, mechanics, plumbers, launderers, Merry Maids, and the Geek Squad. Almost every profession or business is reparative; it fixes something.

Bondsmen are lowlifes. The commercial bonding profession suffers from an image problem due to unflattering depictions in television, movies, and other media. This image may have comported with reality several decades ago. Today, however, commercial bonding is complex, demanding, and highly professionalized. It employs staffs of attorneys, accountants, insurance specialists, investigators, and IT personnel to track the status of millions of transactions.

But even if bondsmen were lowlifes, it would be irrelevant. Your garbage man might not have a degree in comparative literature. But does he clean up your trash?

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