When my son was arrested, this was the first bondsman I spoke to. All of this was new to me, and he seemed very nice, caring and compassionate initially. During our numerous phone conversations over that weekend, he mentioned several times that we needed to get him out as quickly as possible before they moved him or added additional charges. Now I know the real hurry to get it done over the weekend was so that I wouldn't find out I could have simply done a property bond through the Clerk of Court for a $10 fee.
My son's elderly grandparents drove up from out of state to post the cash portion of the bond, which was 15%.in addition, he wanted our property as security for the remainder of the bond. We finally made it to the jail at around 11 on Monday morning. The jail staff told him that my son was in court, and he said to pull him back because we were getting him out.By the time he actually was released, it was about 2:30. My son immediately said he was supposed to be in court, and wanted to make sure that wouldn't be a problem. Larry (the bondsman) told him not to worry about it, he would take care of it. Larry left with my son and my son's grandparents to go to the bank to correct the spelling on his name on the cashier's check the grandparents had brought.
The next night, cops showed up to re-arrest my son because two additional charges had been added. I called Larry immediately to tell him what had happened and to see what we could do. He said all we could do was pay another 15% for the additional bond.By then, we had retained an attorney, so funds were running low and we were unable to come up with any additional money. My son remained in jail. The next night, he called to tell me he had been charged with failure to appear—for the date that we bonded him out. Again, I called Larry immediately, since he had said he would take care of it. He denied ever having said that, despite the fact that five people heard him say it, and said there was nothing he could do about it.
We continued to work to find a way to get my son released again.By then we had learned that most bondsmen in this area will do a 10% fee, and because of the previous difficulties with Larry, we had already decided we would use someone else anyway for this second bond. It was through another bondsman that we learned that Larry had *revoked* the bond we posted! Keep in mind that my son had been in jail all this time (and still is, in fact), and that we had not heard a word about this until the other bondsman found out. I called Larry right away to find out why he had done this, and he told me it was because my son had a failure to appear. Yes, he did—the very same failure to appear that was caused by Larry in the first place. Not only that, it happened before Larry accepted the money for the bond. He also said it was because he had a lot of charges against him. All but two of the charges existed at the time he took the money. I asked him what he was going to do to make this right, and he told me, "good luck."
The bottom line is that all this man wants is your money. Once he has it, he not only will not cooperate or work for you—he will actually work against you. You can find better, more ethical bondsmen cheaper. We are out over $10,000 because of this man. Please let our mistake keep you from making a similar one. Avoid this company!
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