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The beefy guy with the bald head was hogging the telephone in the booking area of the Orange County Jail. The big man was offering to make three-way telephone calls for people who used the bail services he represented. About 15 people lined up, said then-inmate Arturo Pacheco, who was arrested Aug. 24 for driving on a suspended license.
“He wouldn’t let nobody else use the phone,” Pacheco remembered. “He said he was getting a piece broken off.” Translation: the bald inmate was getting a kickback for signing inmates to the affiliated bail services.
Such solicitation is illegal. But Pacheco is one of eight witnesses that the Orange County Bail Agents Association have given to the sheriff’s department as proof the practice — called capping — is occuring here. Each witness was interviewed by a private investigator, former sheriff’s Lt. Bill Hunt, who by the way is running for sheriff. All the witnesses are supposedly being interviewed by the sheriff’s department – although several said they had not been contacted by sheriff’s investigators.
Sheriff’s officials, despite being given at least two weeks to comment, have failed to do so.
Pacheco said deputies and jail personnel were aware of the activity around the telephone, but didn’t act to stop it. Pacheco said the inmate mentioned two local bail agencies and said he could get deals below the 10 percent fee set by the state Department of Insurance.
The reports assembled by Hunt allege that inmates are bullying other inmates to use certain bail services. Moreover, it appears someone with access to booking information is passing telephone numbers to bail companies, who are telephoning family members to arrange bail.
Michelle Johnson said she got a call from a friend at Orange County Jail in October 2008. In the background, Johnson said, she could hear a male voice directing the caller to use a certain bail service. The friend said the voice belonged to an officer.
“I’ve never heard of a cop coming up behind you, telling you who to call,” Johnson said, in an interview. “I would think the sheriff’s officials would want to look at it.”
Johnson said she paid $2,000 on $20,000 bail for her friend. Some days later, the bond company called and said the bail was actually $200,000 and they needed another $18,000 from Johnson. She threatened to call the district attorney. The soliticitation stopped.
Local bond agents say the county isn’t doing enough to stop the illegal bail practices at the jail. Three companies filed a federal racketeering lawsuit in October accusing the sheriff’s department of allowing gangs and inmates to illegally solicit customers for rogue bail operations.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Richard Herman, says that the jail is being run by the inmates.
While sheriff’s officials in the past have downplayed the bail scam at the jails, there is some evidence that the complaints have merit. In 2001, bond agents accused then-Assistent Sheriff George Jaramillo and lawyer Joseph Cavallo of soliciting their participation in a bail kickback scheme. Jaramillo ultimately pleaded no contest on other charges, but Cavallo was convicted of paying for referrals from Xtreme Bail Bonds. Two bail bonds employees also pleaded guilty.
Updated: Sheriff’s spokesman John McDonald said this afternoon that the department is taking the complaints seriously, but has been unable to find any evidence of illegal payoffs for bail referrals. An investigation is continuing.
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Steve Faircloth
A Way Out Bail Bonds
(220) 204-9733 Cell
NSIN# SF0105
LIC. #704058
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