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Several recent crimes focus attention on the process of bail and bond hearings.
Understanding the process behind bail and bond hearings.
Roy Sawyer was out of jail on two separate bonds when a Norfolk judge Monday said 'no more', keeping the accused child predator behind bars.
Christopher Hagans, reportedly arrested 15 times this year, was out on bond when, police say, he gunned down Elisabeth Kelly Reilly in a Hilltop parking lot. Talk to those who know the system and they're not surprised.
Mike Vaughan of Coastal Bail Bonds says "It's not common but it's too frequent." Vaughan has been a bondsman for six years and says he's seen defendants with worse records get out of jail, "A while back a woman asked me to bond her son out of jail. Now he's 23 years old. He had been arrested 25 times."
Eric Plumlee is an attorney and a 10 On Your Side Legal Analyst. He says, "I think people think that if you've been arrested 10 times in the past that that automatically says that you don't get bail and that's not the case."
Plumlee explains bail is a right every person arrested gets. But Plumlee says Virginia law gives 10 situations when a judge should assume no bail. Plumlee explains one case, "If you're charged with any felony and you've previously been convicted of two other felonies."
Other scenarios include a person out on bond charged with a felony, someone charged with an act of gang violence, and the most commonly known: someone charged with an act of violence, which includes, Plumlee says, "murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, abduction, malicious wounding."
But again these are cases where no bail is presumed, so bail is still possible if the defendant can convince the judge he is not a risk. Bondsman Mike Vaughan says while many magistrates and judges follow guidelines, bail is often unpredictable, "It depends on the judge, on the Commonwealths Attorney, on the private attorney," he says.
"You can get a different outcome each time?" we asked.
"Absolutely," said Vaughn
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Steve Faircloth
A Way Out Bail Bonds
(220) 204-9733 Cell
NSIN# SF0105
LIC. #704058
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