Keep Bailing

The San Diego Police Department has announced that they have disbanded it’s DUI Enforcement Team.  10 News San Diego said that one sergeant and the four remaining officers have been transferred to the Traffic Division.

SDPD Public Information Officer Lt. Andrea Brown said they did not believe the change would lead to a decrease in the quality or level of arrests of persons driving under the influence.   She further stated that the reassigned officers would still be available to arrest those under suspicion of driving while drunk or under the influence of drugs.

Brown said that most of the arrests for DUI are made by officers who have been assigned to the numerous patrol divisions that have been assigned throughout San Diego. The newly assigned Traffic Division officers, she said, will still be charged with keeping an eye out for those who are driving while intoxicated.

San Diego is one of the few counties that holds DUI arrestees for bail. Most jurisdictions in California allow defendants to go without a bail bond and simply a promise to appear in court.

The DUI Enforcement had recently come under fire after officer Anthony Read more »

After months of renovation and repair, the Burbank Jail has finally reopened.  The new-and-improved facility has the capacity to hold up to 70 inmates.

During construction, which began in April, the Burbank have been transporting arrestees to the Glendale Jail for booking.   Burbank Police Lt. John Dilibert told the Burbank Leader that this added “at least another 45 minutes to the process”.

Now that the jail is open, he said, it will not only save Read more »

Fun Friday Bail Facts: Harold Hadly Jr. never expected that a note written about the joys of flatulence would prompt a campus-wide bomb scare. Unbeknownst to him, the 11 emergency agencies that were dispatched to the Mississippi junior college took that note very, very seriously.

The young Hadly, 19, said that “bombs” is simply a slang term for “passing gas”, and that his note about “passing bombs in the library” was not about explosives, but about noxious gas.  When the note was dropped, found by another student and passed to a teacher in the library, things were quickly blown out of proportion.

A Huffington Post Weird News correspondent said that Hadley was arrested and Read more »

Bail agents from all over the country traveled to Los Vegas this week to attend the 2012 annual Professional Bail Agents of the United States (PBUS) conference.

Most people have never needed to use the services of a bail bonds company before and because of that, many still have the belief that bail agents spend their days sitting behind desks, smoking cigars and throwing darts.  The truth of the matter is that there are more than 15,000 licensed bail agents throughout the country and more than 50 percent are women.

8 News Now said that this year’s group of conference attendees remain busy because more and more people are being arrested and taken to jail.  The attendees also wanted to make sure that the public has a greater understanding of the differences between bail bondsmen and bounty hunters.

Bail bondsmen are hired by Read more »

Inmates at the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail are not the only ones itching to get out. There are many jail deputies who do not enjoy their time working inside the LA County lockups. Officials for the Sheriff’s Department are hoping that proposed changes, which will speed up promotions, will get deputies more enthusiastic about their time inside the jails.

As of now, deputies have to go on street patrol in order to become supervisors. The new plan will allow deputies to move up in rank while staying on duty in county jails. Sheriff Lee Baca hopes that the two-track career system will allow for a core of experienced jailers who actually want to work in the corrections system.

LASD has resisted having two sets of deputies for years. With recent scrutiny of the LA jails Read more »

Or, Why Use An Expert Bail Bondsman

An Austin, Texas bail bondsman has been arrested and charged with theft.   Police say she is accused of stealing the personal items of a client while they were being booked into a local jail. Reportedly, the woman, Patricia Gordon Stark, is the owner of Ace Bail Bonds.  In October of 2011 the defendant was apprehended outside of her attorney’s office by a private investigator hired by Stark.  At that time, police say, the victim “had a purse that contained 8,000 Euros, valued at approximately $11,500 U.S.   She also had in her possession approximately $500 in U.S. currency as well as a cell phone.

Although she was taken to the Caldwell County Jail to be booked and processed, her personal items were brought to Stark’s office.  Stark said that the private investigator kept the U.S. currency and that she placed the Euros into an office safe.

When the victim completed her jail sentence, Read more »

A Santa Monica man said he was locked up for five days last November because he didn’t have phone numbers of friends, family members or a bail bondsman committed to memory. Stephen Petrick was arrested and charged with false imprisonment after trying to help a pregnant woman kick a heroin habit.  Although his intentions were pure when he locked her inside his Santa Monica home so she couldn’t buy drugs, the situation quickly went downhill.

LA Weekly reports he was taken to the LA County Jail to be booked and processed.  When he was finally able to use a pay-phone to call out, Petrick realized the only number he had memorized was a friend’s cell phone number.   Cell phones, however, are unable to accept collect calls.

Petrick, whose bail had been set at $150,000; said he had no issue in being able to pay for a bail bond.  He did, however, have problems Read more »

Hollywood’s favorite “good girl” Selena Gomez is ditching her squeaky-clean image and heading to jail – or at least her character in the upcoming film Spring Breakers is.

The Disney Star will be partying, drinking, and getting crazy with her girlfriends, she told US  Weekly.  In one scene, the coeds even wind up robbing a restaurant as a means of funding the trip.   Although the edgy part is a far-cry from her off-screen persona, Gomez said she was up for the challenge and embraced the role. Viewers should keep in mind that movie-set jails are quite different from what celebrity female arrestees like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan experienced when they were booked into the Lynwood Jail, the Los Angeles County women’s jail.

As far as having concerns about her younger, tween-fans Read more »

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds is continuing to expand on its already top-notch customer service by creating the first ever California’s Top 50 Criminal Defense Attorneys Online list.

California law prohibits bail bonds companies from making attorney referrals.  The Top 50 Criminal Defense Attorneys Online list was thus created by allowing people to nominate attorneys who they feel are the most influential and have the strongest social media presence.

All nominees underwent a stringent evaluation process and the winners were selected based on Read more »

Tuolumne County submitted an application, along with seven others, in order to receive funding from the state for a new jail complex. County officials were hoping for a maximum $33 million for the project. However, the county ranks lowest in priority among the small counties that applied.

The total cost of the proposed project in Tuolumne County Jail is estimated at $48 million. The other counties that applied for the small county category of funding are Kings, Shasta, Sutter, Madera, Imperial, San Benito and Siskiyou.

There is only $102 million available from the state for county corrections projects and the eight counties requested a total of Read more »