Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

Running only makes you go to Jail tired!

Agent: Joey Orlando

I was given a case from Big Boyz Bail Bonds for a guy that failed to appear on $20,000 bond in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. It really appeared to be a tough case. When Big Boyz bailed him out, he was calling from Spring Grove Hospital in Baltimore County because he was being evaluated due to psychiatric issues. The defendant was clearly unstable and did not have a lot of family ties directly connected with the bail bond.

Fortunately, I made contact with a person that didn't like the Defendant very much and I was able to get her to work with me. My informant was shopping in Wal-Mart when she noticed my targets grandfather in the store, so she quickly bumped into him and struck up a conversation about my target. The grandfather told her that the target was in Virginia with his cousin. My informant asked for the number so that she could call him because she missed him so much.

The number was given to me and I verified the information. Immediately, my partner and I set out on the road to Richmond, Virginia. I met with a few Richmond Sheriffs Deputies, who were great guys by the way, and I advised them of the situation. The deputies accompanied me to the address. When I tapped on the door it was open so I pushed it open to see inside and that's when a little girl came to the door. I said "hi, where is Chris I need to talk to him" and she said, "in the bedroom."

By this time the Defendant knew what was going on and attempted to flee out of the back door, but we prepared for this. As he attempted to flee, he ran right into the arms of my awaiting partner and three Deputy Sheriff's. The Defendant was placed under arrest and I transported him back to Maryland. The total cost of this arrest to the Maryland and Virginia taxpayer is 0. That's right! Due to a strong financial incentive of the Bail Bondsman all fugitive recoveries are privately funded thus costing the taxpayer nothing. That is why it is so important to have Bail Bondsman.

TIGHT SPOT!

Agent: Joey Orlando

This case is a repeat offender, a guy that always seems to find himself on the run. The defendant failed to appear in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Maryland. I was contacted by Big Boyz Bail Bonds in Baltimore Maryland and asked to locate and arrest the pesky Defendant.

The Defendant was wanted for cable fraud, an unusual crime but a warrant nonetheless. My partner and I went to the last known address of the defendant which is also the same address as the Indemnitor (signer) at approximately 3am. Upon knocking on the door I was able to make contact with the Indemitors husband. The husband advised me that the Defendant should be in the basement apartment with his son because his vehicle was parked in front of the house and he doesn't have any other means of transportation.

After beating on the door for about an hour I was able to dislodge a towel that was hanging over the glass door that enabled us to see throughout the apartment. The apartment looked as if no one was home but there was a room that we could not see into. The Indemnitor's husband insisted that the target had to be in there with his son and his son was too young to be away from home. I gave the door a little push and I noticed that the top of the door flexed a little but the bottom was extremely tight and appeared to be sealed from the inside. Looking down towards the floor I noticed a 2 by 4 wedged against the door to prevent entry. I decided to break the door down and conduct a search for the defendant.

Upon entering the room that I could not see into, I discovered a young boy approximately 12 years of age sitting on his bed as if nothing was wrong. Through my knowledge and experience in bounty hunting it clearly indicated to me that my target was hiding. I began a thorough search of the apartment which took about an hour before finding my target hiding in a pile of junk that was as high as the ceiling. Once I located him he came out and surrendered himself to me. I placed him under arrest and transported him to jail.

I will never understand why this guy put his own son in harms way as anything could have happened once we breached the door to conduct a search. I even yelled out that a K-9 officer was going to send in the dog after him and he never said, "Ok I am coming out, my son is here, please don't send in the dog". Despicable!

The long arm of Johnny Law knows no boundaries

Agent: Joey Orlando

I recently received a case from Big Boyz Bail Bonds located in Baltimore, MD for a guy that failed to appear in the Circuit Court of Maryland for Harford County, better known to the bad guy as "Hazard County." The defendant was charged with violation of probation from a conviction that stems from distribution of narcotics near a school. During the course of my investigation I learned that the Defendant was an aspiring rapper and living in Atlanta, GA.

I spoke to the indemnitor (signer) for the bail which is like a step father to the Defendant but not together with the Defendants mother any longer. The indemnitor spoke to my targets mother and was able to provide me with two cell phone numbers and a first name for each number. I was quickly able to track it to the Defendants girl friend and best friend with full names and addresses. I further entered my targets name through the MySpace website and quickly located photos and video of my target and his best friend.

Low and behold my target listed an address on the website which is the same address that I developed from the cell number of the targets best friend. I contacted fellow agents in Atlanta and advised them of my case and intentions and we made arrangements to meet near the target location. My partner and I traveled to Atlanta and met with fellow agents in Atlanta to make arrangements for post arrest.

I originally intended on hitting both girl friend and the best friends house at the same time but due to a very recent video of the target on MySpace he clearly stated that him and the girl friend were not together anymore, so I focused on the best friends address. My team and I surrounded the apartment and began to knock on the door. A man answered the door and we asked to speak with the best friend to confirm for ourselves that we had the correct information and location.

The man said that he was not home yet. I then asked to speak with his friend Trae (my target). The mans eyes looked toward a bedroom door so we entered that room and my target was standing right there in the middle of the room at 6:20am. We quickly took the Defendant to the ground and placed him under arrest. I advised the Defendant that he is under arrest for the Maryland warrant and off we went, back on the road again.

A total of 26 hours total was drived from Maryland to Atlanta and back to Maryland due to traffic. Now the great citizens of Maryland and Georgia can rest easy tonight knowing that guys like myself under the cover of darkness are fighting crime and keeping the public safe. People really don't know, but we in the bail business never sleep and are relentless when it comes to tracking down people that fail to appear in court thus making us the 2nd best fugitive apprehension people in the United State's the 1st being the United State's Marshalls.

This is a question that really phases most all families when immersed in the bail posting process. There are countless factors that one must take into consideration when considering posting a bail or taking advantage of the prisoners right for his or her bail to be reconsidered by a judge. In many respects bail review is a gamble, yet it can also be used to the defendants advantage if gone about the right way.

The last thing a family member or friend wants to see is a loved one have to spend a night in jail. All too often people act too hastily when one gets incarcerated and will in many cases do just about anything to get them released on bail. It is important to try and look at the situation concerning bail from multiple perspectives and think carefully before acting irrationally.

Bail review is one of the few rights an inmate obtains when being arrested. If a bail is set and the defendant does not post the bail before the next business day they are entitled to go in front of a district court judge to have there bail reviewed. At bail review one of three things can occur. Either the bail can be raised, lowered, or stay the same.

A bail review judge reviews bail under two main factors: the defendants potential risk of flight, and there danger to themselves, an individual, or to the public at large. Keeping these factors in mind we can make intelligent decisions on our course of action. It is important to remember that every case is different, there is no set formula, we look at every case on an individual basis.

Just this past weekend we had a lady contact us at our Maryland Bail Bonds office about her husband locked up in Anne Arundel County Detention Center. The bond was set at a ridiculous figure of $255,305! This is an astronomically high bail. We spent a lot of time back and forth with her on the phone as she tried to raise the money to pay this bail. I said, "ma'am, your husband has not been locked up in a decade, the charges appear to be bogus, let him go to bail review and the bail will most likely get brought back down to reality."

Sure enough, her husband went to bail review Monday morning and the judge reduced his bail significantly to $20,000. Now we had a reasonable bail that she could afford and was able to post the bail with no problem. The toughest part for the lady was the fact that her husband was arrested over the weekend so he was forced to spend a couple nights in jail; but in the end it saved her a lot of money and only had to sacrifice a few days in jail for the same result.

Lately, there has been a significant increase in the amount of cash bails that have been getting set in Baltimore City. A lot of people call Big Boyz Bail Bonds to inquire about posting these cash bails. Technically, a bail bondsman cannot post these bails and charge a fee to do so. When a district court commissioner or a judge makes a bail a "cash only bond" it means exactly that, only cash can be put up for the bond. No corporate surety (a bail bondsman) or property can be posted.

So this begs the questions: Why set a bond at cash only? Why has there been so many more cash bails being set in Baltimore City. There are many reasons as to why this is occurring, but primary reason is to make it more difficult for the defendant to get released. In many respects, bail bondsmen make the bail posting process very simple and affordable. Bail Bondsmen can take low percentages down for down payments and finance the balance at no interest. When a bond is set at cash, there is no financing available, either the cash gets paid, or the defendant doesn't get released.

In Baltimore City there are at least a couple judges that do not believe in Bail Bondsmen and there function to society. Because of this, they change every bail to whatever the 10% of the bail is and make it set at 100% cash. For example, if you were given a $10,000 bail, the judge would re-set the bond to $1,000 at 100% cash. This obviously makes it very difficult to make the bond and most people cannot afford a lot of the cash bonds that are getting posted in Baltimore City.

Essentially what the judges are doing, in many respects, is assuming guilt prior to the defendant's trial and hence punishing the defendant for it. In addition, they are not taking into consideration, the primary purpose of bail, which is to insure the defendant's appearance in court. In all honesty, who is going to go after a person who forfeits on a cash bond? When a bail bondsman posts a bail they sign a bond stating they are indebted to the courts in the full amount of the bond. That's why there are bounty hunters, because there is real money at stake.