Maryland Bail Bonds Blog

Harford County Bail Bonds Company, Big Boyz Bail Bonds, was ecstatic to discover that a $75,000 bond posted for a defendant in Harford County was successfully apprehended today in Tucson Arizona. This defendant posted bond with our company back in 2005 and due to multiple postponements of his case he forfeited the bond only recently in September of 2009.

When we were notified by Harford County Circuit Court of this defendant failing to appear for court we were put in a very difficult position. All of the information within our file was very outdated. The information was from 5 years ago and just about every phone number was disconnected and most all people associated with the bail did not live at their respective addresses anymore. To make matters worse for us, the defendant went by the very common name of James Jackson and had at least 5 other alias names he has used in the past.

This was only the beginning. At the time of posting the bond, the defendant was residing in Philadelphia and the signer for the bond lived in New York. The defendant had no ties at all to the state of Maryland as he was arrested passing through the state in route to New York. Technically, we had no business writing the bail but hind-sight is only 20-20. By posting bond for this defendant we signed guaranteeing Harford County that he would appear for court. So it was our responsibility to bring Mr. Jackson back to Harford County to face his charges.

Today, Special Agent Joey Orlando of the Maryland Fugitive Task Force was contacted by friendly bounty hunters in New York about a defendant arrested in Tucson Arizona under the name James Jackson and the alias names we knew of. After matching his finger prints with his FBI ID# we were assured we had our man. Eventually, Mr. Jackson will be transported to New York and then Philadelphia to be served on several warrants. Soon after, he will be extradited down to Harford County Maryland to be served on our warrant.

An event such as today should prove to all fugitives currently on the run that you can only stay on the run for so long before the law catches up to you. No matter how far away you are you always run the risk of getting picked up at any time and any place. Trust and believe that once you get caught, the Bail Bondsmen will be aware and you will eventually be brought back to jail in the location of your court hearing.

Maryland Bail Bonds Company Big Boyz Bonds posted a $50,000 bond for the release of a defendant from the Anne Arundel County Detention Center in January of 2009. We posted the bond on the promise that the defendant and his girlfriend who co-signed the bond would guarantee his appearance in court. Unfortunately for us, the defendant failed to appear for court and he was on the run.

Tracking the defendant down proved to be a daunting task because he was originally from North Carolina and had only been living in Maryland for a short period of time. Most of his family is from North Carolina and he was quick to flee to his hometown after he was released on our bond.

Over the course of 6 months he rarely made any effort to contact us. And when he did contact us, it would be from a private number and he would never tell us where he was or who he was staying with. People that jump bail always surprise me because it is only a matter of time before it catches up to them. People think that they can stay on the run forever and think they are invincible to the people that are tracking them down.

The defendant claimed to be in Baltimore and expressed interest in turning himself in to face the music. He thought if he reached out to us and continuously told us that he wasn't going anywhere we would sit back and wait for him to walk into our office. While we might wish to happen we certainly were not willing to count on it. So we continued our hunt and traveled to North Carolina.

In North Carolina we were able to meet up with some helpful members of the police department down there and work together to bring the fugitive into custody. They were able to come up with an address for the defendant and his girlfriend and literally watched the defendant pull into their driveway. The Maryland bounty hunters moved in quickly as the defendant tried to drive past them running into our team's vehicle.

The bounty hunters quickly surrounded the defendant as he tried to flee and called local police for support. The defendant was successfully apprehended and transported back to Maryland to be served on his Anne Arundel County Bench Warrant. A case like this is proof that the Bail Bonds system in Maryland can work when you have a legitimate operation that is actually responsible for the people they post bond for.

With so many shady bail bondsmen in this State it gives most Maryland Bail Bonds companies that do it right a bad reputation. Hopefully one day shady bail bondsmen will be a thing of the past and those that take ownership for their bonds continue on in providing a valuable service to the Maryland Judicial System.

Recently here in Baltimore, bail was posted for a Deacon of a church for sexual abuse of a minor. The case was profiled on the news and some of the charges consisted of second degree rape and sodomy out of approximately 40 or so charges. The surety, as it usually does, was checking the status of the case for the trial date etc. Upon doing so they noticed that a pre-trial warrant was issued for the defendant before his trial date and immediately contacted me for assistance.

During the second day of my investigation I believed that I located the defendant at his home so I contacted some friends of mine to assist with the arrest. This was due to the fact that a recent search warrant was conducted at the residence and as a result the defendant was charged with FIREARM / DRUG TRAF CRIME.

As a standard operating procedure before arresting the subject we called the police agency that holds the original warrant and was told not to arrest the individual because the investigation was ongoing. I completely understand this reasoning but, if that is the case why would the warrant information be placed in the Maryland online court system?

Furthermore, the defendant has court in a week and may flee the jurisdiction of the court because the warrant information is on the internet. One reason may be that the detective that is working the case may want to talk to him before he is committed, but if that is the case then why hasn't he arrested this individual yet?

In addition, the bail on the warrant is denied so he should have plenty of time to talk to him and if he prefers to speak to the target at the time of his arrest, then I suggest that he promptly arrest this individual or accompany me as I locate and apprehend this person. I would like to see what they do to locate this person should he fail to appear for trial when I could have arrested him today. My guess is that they will make some attempts to locate him and then they will return the warrant and hope that he gets arrested on it at some point later.

One more thing that is mind boggling to me is the fact that this Violent Felony Warrant was not placed in the National Criminal Information System (N.C.I.C.) which notifies every law enforcement officer in the country that may come in contact with this individual. This happens more times than one could imagine. If anyone understands why this may be, please explain.
Sincerely,
Agent: J. Orlando
Warrant / Fugitive
Investigations & Apprehension

Finding fugitives that purposely skip their court dates in fear of jail time can be some of the most difficult cases to track. In this specific case, the defendant Mr. Green virtually cut off all ties with his family and friends in order to be able to hide from those attempting to apprehend him. So virtually everything on the original bail application became completely useless. This case was similar to trying to find a needle in a hay stack as the saying goes.

To make matters even worse, the defendant's mother, whom the bounty hunters had contacted on numerous occasions was of no help and claimed to having not seen her son in months. It is always difficult to determine whether parents are telling the truth in regards to their offspring in matters like this. Some parents will protect their children at any costs even if they have a warrant for their arrest. This can be very disheartening for the bounty hunters and apprehension time in trying to locate the defendant.

The only option the bounty hunters had left was to use the indemnitor (the person who signed for the defendants release on the bond) as a resource. Fortunately the indemnitor was willing to cooperate with our staff in helping us locate the defendant simply due to the fact that the defendant did him wrong just like he did the baltimore bail bonds company wrong.

In working with the indemnitor we were able to track him to a specific location at a mutual friends place, apprehended the defendant, and transported him to Baltimore City Central Booking and Intake Center. As you can see from the video, the defendant was clearly upset that he was finally caught; however he was ultimately cooperative with the arresting authorities. The above video is a good example of how bounty hunting is done professionally.

Again, not every skip trace results in an intense fight or struggle. The best bounty hunters in Maryland will always try and keep things under control and cooperative so to not influence anything that could result in trouble down the road. There are many horror stories of bounty hunters bombarding into homes and tearing things apart with no clue as to whether the defendant is actually inside or not. This is not the professional way to go about this type of business.

Maryland Bounty Hunters like to have all possible exits covered before they plan on entering a house. If a fugitive hears something going on at the front door and tries to escape out the back or a side window they will be greeted by another fugitive recovery agent. In this video we can see that one Maryland Bounty Hunter has already gained entrance from the back door and allows his partner to enter in through the front.

For this specific target, the bounty hunters got a tip from people in the neighborhood that he always takes his kid to school in the morning around 8:30am. Other than that, the neighbors never really see him all that often. From this info, the bounty hunters arrived at the defendant's house early in the morning and waited for movement in the house.

Shortly after they arrived at the house a light turned on and they could see a person moving around inside the house. From this they were able to determine with almost absolute positivity that their target was inside. As you can see from the video, they gained entrance and found the defendant calmly sitting on his couch.

Rather than forcefully cuffing the defendant and taking him into custody, the bounty hunters calmly ask all the necessary questions that need to get answered. You can hear the bounty hunters inquiring about the girl that the defendant was going to originally take to school, and about anybody else that was present in the home. Most people believe bounty hunting is all about being rough and tough, but there are protocols and procedures a bounty hunter must take before taking brute physical action.

Recently Big Boyz Bail Bonds handed one of their files to a team of bounty hunters to help locate a wanted man that failed to appear for court. This defendant forfeited on a $7,500 bond out of Baltimore County. When the defendant forfeited his bond the judge issued a $25,000 preset bond.

The bounty hunters understood, from researching the situation, that this was probably nothing more than confusion as to why the defendant missed his court date. In no way did the bounty hunters feel that this defendant was actually a flight risk. They figured this for a number reasons, most noticeably due to the fact that the defendant lived with his 10 children that he has to support.

As you can see from the video, the bounty hunters give the defendant an opportunity to use the phone and try and arrange posting his new preset bail of $25,000. This goes to show that not every case is a long chase or hunt, but a lot of cases are rather simple and straightforward and can be easily negotiated.

Once the bounty hunters apprehended the subject they took the defendant to a local Baltimore County Precinct to get processed. Shortly after this, the defendant was transferred to a district court commissioner in Essex and Big Boyz Bail Bonds was there to post his bond.

As mentioned in previous blog entries on apprehending fugitive subjects in Maryland, not everybody misses court on purpose. Or so they say. In this video below, the defendant claims he received a summons for a different date then shown to him by the bounty hunter. Nonetheless, a warrant has been issued for the defendant and therefore the warrant must be served at any cost.

Of course, not every case is clear cut and dry, and the defendant doesn't always cooperate with the arresting bounty hunter. As seen in this video, fugitive recovery agent for a Maryland bail bonds company "Big Boyz Bail Bonds" has to get aggressive and lay down the law for the irritable defendant.

In the video, the defendant is accusing the Maryland bounty hunter that he is not a cop. This is of course a true fact; however Agent Orlando (seen in the video) never claims to be one. But because he is a Maryland State licensed surety agent and was issued a warrant by a Maryland Judge he has the right to apprehend the targeted subject.

Due to the high volume of bails that Big Boyz Bail Bonds posts on a yearly basis we see a high volume of bond forfeitures for all sorts of reasons. Because of this, we plan on putting up many more fugitive recovery videos in the near future so you can see firsthand what it's like to be a bounty hunter in Baltimore Maryland. Stay tuned.

It is sometimes insane the amount of calls that Big Boyz Bail Bonds receives on a weekly basis from people calling asking how to become a bounty hunter in Baltimore Maryland. My personal response to a lot of the people who inquire is, "Are you sure you want to become a bounty hunter?" or "Do you want to never have a good night of sleep again?" A lot of people, of course, get their opinions on bounty hunting from "Dog the Bounty Hunter." They see Dog running around with his team of bounty hunters during the day-time looking for all sorts of fugitives having a grand old time.

In reality, there is a lot more that goes into bounty hunting than one is made to believe on T.V. Before a bounty hunter knocks on or busts down a door there is an extraordinary amount of research that goes into each particular case. Fugitive Recovery agent Joey Orlando has been bounty hunting in Baltimore Maryland for over 13 years. He has seen just about everything in his tenure.

Bounty hunting in Baltimore is a truly daunting task because as the economy gets worse, and people get laid off their jobs, there is an increase of defendants out on bail moving from place to place and disconnected phone numbers. Before Agent Orlando (seen below) heads out on a skip trace he makes sure he has done his research. The bail bonds business is an information business, and without good information it makes it more difficult to track down the wanted fugitive.

The good thing about bounty hunting here in Baltimore Maryland is that the bonding company has up to 180 days to bring the defendant back into custody before the bond has to be paid out to the state. Once the bond has been paid the bonding company has 10 years to recoup their money. So time is on the bail bondsman's side. However, the more bails you do, the more forfeitures you get. It is unavoidable.

The hours are long as a bounty hunter. You might sit on a house for 5 or 6 hours just watching to see if there is any movement inside. You might enter a house and instantly be faced with a gun barrel staring you in the face. Or you might be expected to stay up for 36 hours straight driving from place to place chasing down just one person, while you still need to look for 20 other subjects. So next time you call a bail bondman to inquire about bounty hunting, take into consideration all that's involved, and not just what you see on T.V.

Recently, Big Boyz Bail Bonds received notification that a bail that we posted for a Spanish defendant in June of 2009 failed to appear for trial. Due to the FTA, we were issued a warrant for the defendants arrest by a district court judge. In many cases, detaining a Spanish defendant can be a daunting task due to the fact that in most cases they do not speak great English and tend to change addresses frequently.

One would think that this was definitely a case that needed to be taken care of by our Fugitive Recovery Agent Joey Orlando to search and locate the defendant. However, in some instances Big Boyz Bail Bonds seeks alternative methods in taking care of these particular types of warrants. In this case, we decided to call our defendant to see what happened.

Our defendant was very cooperative and didn't even know he had missed court because he never received the summons. This was an unfortunate situation for the defendant because he claims he was never made aware of the court date and now has to face going back to jail. We told him to come into our office to sort matters out. When he missed court, the judge issued a $10,000 bail at 10% cash. What this means is that once the defendant see's the commissioner the defendant's family could take $1,000 to the commissioner and post the bail. And once the defendant appeared for court they would receive their $1,000 back.

When the defendant arrived in our office we placed him under arrest. But rather than just taking him straight to Baltimore City central booking (where it could take 24 hours for him to get processed) we allowed him to make all the necessary phone calls he needed to make to come up with the $1,000 cash. Once he arranged his money, we transported him to a local Baltimore County Precinct to get processed on the warrant.

When most people think about bail bonds in maryland, they immediately think about Bounty Hunters. This is an instance where no bounty hunter was necessary. We were able to successfully touch base with our defendant and set up a scenario for him where he could be processed on the warrant and post bail all within only a couple hours.

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.