Keep Bailing

In more celebrity arrest news, Mel Gibson’s conviction for drunk driving was finally expunged this week.  He has met the requirements of his probation after his 2006 drunk driving arrest.

However, in an attempt to uncover what some are saying was a media leak from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, authorities have discovered two calls were made to Harvey Levin of TMZ the exact day of Gibson’s arrest. 

One of the arresting Sheriff Deputies, James Mee stated he did nothing wrong and declined to comment any further. But phone records Read more »

As last year, California bail agents met at Lake Tahoe for the 2009 Annual Convention of the California Bail Agents (CBAA). Day one was Monday and included the usual State of the Association and PBUS National Updates.

Pretrial Release

Continuing Education Credit was offered to bondsmen who attended all required sessions, the first of which was an attorney presentation regarding Pre Trial Release presented by Ash Pirayou of Rutan & Tucker and a panel on Credit Card Bail. Pirayou reviewed current happenings in Pretrial Release (commonly known as Release on Own Recognizance or “OR“) in Santa Clara County. Pirayou said that Santa Clara County jailsare attempting to use pretrial release to relieve jail overcrowding and save money, but the bottom line numbers show a significantly different picture. He called on bail agents to help paint an accurate public picture.

Orange County Sheriff Candidate

Bondsmen were also addressed by Bill Hunt, candidate for Orange County Sheriff.  Hunt, who spent 22 years in the Orange County Read more »

In the first address to Los Angeles bail bondsmen since his election to City Attorney, Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich told a group assembled Sunday evening that the office he inherrited was “broken“. He added, “I was elected to clean up the office and I will.”

Trutanich gave only a brief prelude to what bondsmen would hear more about in the days to come at the Annual Meeting of the California Bail Agents Association (CBAA): “We are arresting bail agents for capping,” Trutanich told us.

Interestingly, he gave no real details to something of great importance to the California bail industry. Unethical bail agents operating illegally is a serious problem to those of us who run a clean business. I, for one, was very interested in the details.

He went on to Read more »

While I couldn’t stay awake long enough last night to get an official victory, out of the gate Carmen Trutanich was holding a lead on his opponent Jack Weiss. I was happy to find this morning that Los Angeles has a new City Attorney  who brings high hopes for changes in our criminal system – “Nuch” Trutanich.

As a bail bondsman, I see the City Attorney’s job in terms of Read more »