This morning the bail bonds community was abuzz with the rumor that one of their colleagues had been detained and questioned by members of the Cameron County District Attorney's Office and local police.
Although authorities have not released the name of the suspected solicitor, many bondsmen who were waiting outside the police department said that the case revolved around a $1,500 payment for a dubious promise of preventing a defendant in a criminal case from getting sent to prison.
It is unknown whether the alleged offense took place at the Brownsville Police Department or whether the bondsman was merely detained for questioning there when he showed up.
Witnesses said they saw Ass. D.A. Matthew Kendall, local attorney Noe Garza, and bondsman Joe Paredes huddled inside talking animatedly before they were ushered away from the group.
(Later, Paredes told friends that he had collected $1,500 from a defendant in a criminal trial after a woman he knew asked him to do it for her. He said he gave her the money afterward and didn't keep any of it himself). He said he was unaware that she had promised the defendant that (Paredes) could talk to the judge and prevent him from being sent to the pen. After the man was sentenced, he said Paredes hadn't delivered and filed a complaint against him .With no other recourse [other than "he said she said"], Paredes said he paid the $1,500 to the officers.)
The Cameron County Bail Bond Board prohibits bail bond companies from approaching people to ask for business in a police station, jail, prison, detention facility or anywhere on state, city or county property where people are detained by law enforcement.
Penalties can range from loss of a surety license to a public reprimand or return of the fees charged in the transaction.
Bondsmen have not been allowed to sit in municipal court during arraignments of defendants arrested overnight. They instead congregate outside in the lobby or outside the building and wait to see if the relatives of the defendants seek them out to bail out their relatives after the bond is set by the municipal judge.
However, intake workers for the Cameron County Pre-Trial Release Program (PTRP) are free to sit in court and take clients at a discount 3 percent fee, compared to the usual 10 percent fee charged by commercial bail bonds companies.
Once the bonds are set, the prisoners are sent to the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center in Olmito.
Even there, workers for the PTRP are allowed to go into the cells and offer defendants the cut-rate bonds.
This has led to many commercial bail bonds companies to complain that the county is subsidizing unfair competition against them.
"We pay rent, taxes, and our workers, and the county undercuts our business and prevents us from seeing the defendants," said a bail bond operator. "They can actually go into the cells and offer their cut-rate bonds to customers who may have already got in touch with us. They even offer them free legal representation if they sign up."
Since the matter with Paredes didn't involve solicitation, after he paid back the money, he was released.
7 comments:
Eh, Juan, saw el Blimp con un pinche perro callejero parked outside the Vermillion. Tenia el look de un pirujo buscando chile. Que le pasa a ese bofe? Es blogero, o es caquita? Orale, raza! A tirar ganchos.
Breaking news dudes.....the round mound of ass pound is full of shit....literally...he reported on His Brownsville Noise that his bowels had shut down....evidently, his bowels did what he does to everybody and betrayed him.....rumor is the hairy addition will have his excrement removed from his head....lol!
PUNK POETRY:
“A pack of queers were on the move that summer in Brownsville,” he wrote.
Can't understand why a bondsmen or two don't hire an attorney and sue the county for tortious interference, maybe even anti-trust. The county has shown, at least through the examples you have posted in your stories, that their "indigent" program don't just provide bonds for indigents. Now the county, through the DA's office, is bullying and intimidating bondsmen to protect its interests. An initial filing could seek a TRO against the county to stop providing these cheap bonds, at least until an evidentiary hearing can be held.
The county, it appears to me, also has a conflict of interest in this practice. They arrest under the jurisdiction of "The State of Texas," in the interest of protecting the public from lawbreakers, then turn around and release these public enemies back on society for less than the going rate of the state regulated and licensed bonding industry.
A secondary benefit of a lawsuit would examine the creation of this program by Judge Nelson, where it would be revealed that of all the able-bodied men and women seeking employment in CC, the most qualified person to garner county wages and benefits, as it turns out, is none other than Judge Nelson's campaign manager. I think the feds would welcome an in-depth look in to the county hiring practices, at least in this instance.
Damn, if I was a lawyer, I'd be all over this. It's a winner.
El Trumpet is coming to Laredo. The welcome committee will be headed by El Chapo and his associates. He will be awarded the Order of The Silk Nectie at the bridge.
You can always hire, Bobby "The Sky is Falling" Cervantes!
What's the obsession with vomiting slurs, and body shaming ? You must feel so rotten inside that you spew so much hate towards one individual.
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