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Connecticut Bailbondsman, police arrested
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Author:  BondgirlCA [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 15:07 ]
Post subject:  Connecticut Bailbondsman, police arrested
At Least 2 New Haven Officers, Bail Bondsmen Arrested In Federal Bust

POSTED: 2:41 pm EDT March 13, 2007
UPDATED: 3:40 pm EDT March 13, 2007
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- At least two New Haven officers and a number of prominent bail bondsmen have been arrested in a federal bust in New Haven, NBC 30 is reporting.

At least four or five arrests have been made and the U.S Attorney’s Office is involved.

Those arrested are facing federal charges of conspiracy and bribery, NBC 30 reported.

Lt. William White, a longtime New Haven narcotics detective, was arrested in the bust. Officials said they are still very early in the investigation.

Those arrested will be appearing at 3: 30 p.m. in Hartford Federal Court.

Stay tuned to NBC 30 for additional information as it becomes available.
Author:  BondgirlCA [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 15:09 ]
Post subject:  More on the story in CT...
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Two New Haven police officers and three bail bondsmen were arrested Tuesday after a search of the New Haven Police Department by FBI agents.

Lt. William White, head of the city's narcotics squad, and Detective Justen Kasperzyk were charged and appeared along with the bondsmen in Hartford Federal Court on Tuesday afternoon.

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Diana Rocco reported that White was charged with criminal conspiracy and stealing federal funds of more than $1,000.

Rocco reported that White is accused of taking federal money during police raids. Officials said that they have evidence that White stole $27,000 that should have been confiscated during drug raids.

Prosecutors said White was caught on video transferring $27,000 in a brown paper bag to his car. In federal court, prosecutors showed a photograph of a man they said was White, dressed in sunglasses and a gray hooded sweat shirt, walking with the bag.

Officials said that bail bondsmen were paying White $10,000 to $15,000 to find fugitives and arrest them. He is accused of taking at least $60,000 from one of the bondsmen.

Rocco reported that Kasperzyk was charged with stealing funds from the FBI valuing less than $1,000.

Arrested along with the officers were three bail bondsmen: Robert Jacobs, Paul Jacot and Phil Jacobs. The accused bondsmen are a father and two sons, Rocco reported. They were charged with conspiracy to violate U.S. code by combining and agreeing corruptly to give an officer money.

Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Leon Collins reported from the New Haven Police Station Tuesday afternoon that the third-floor of the station was locked down and officers were instructed not to leave. The third-floor houses the offices of detectives, the narcotics division and the police chief.

Collins reported that detectives were removing items from White's Alston Street home. Collins witnessed at least two computers and records being removed from the home as well as detectives photographing the home's garage.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., in a written statement, said he was concerned to learn about the arrest of the officers.

"We are attempting to learn more about the charges and will be fully cooperating with the investigation," DeStefano said.

The mayor said he will hold a news conference when he returns to the city from Washington. He is expected to arrive in the city Tuesday night.

Police Chief Francisco Ortiz said Tuesday was a very dark day for the police department. He said he is disgusted and upset.

The charges against White carry a punishment of more than 10 years in prison.

Collins reported that White, a 40-year veteran of the police force, was scheduled to retire this summer.

Kasperzyk was released on $100,000 bond and all three of the bondsmen were released on bonds of $750,000 each.

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Author:  tsuggs [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 15:48 ]
Post subject: 
The bondsman should get at least 10 years in jail also, if convicted. There needs to be a strong message across the country to let these scums, alleged scums, know that if they get caught, they will do lots of time.
Author:  KARMA [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 15:55 ]
Post subject: 
Isn't odd that anybody should have to pay a cop to do his or her job.
And what kind of bond would warrant a 10 to 15K payout to a cop?
On the the same page as 'Weasel' they need to made an example of - I am sick of dirty bondpersons, is is SO much easier to just do the frickin job. And they wonder why we (collectively) have such shit reps.
Author:  Kathy [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 20:18 ]
Post subject: 
Bail bondsmen arrested linked to charged officer

by News Channel 8's Annie Rourke
Posted Mar. 13, 2007
10:07 PM

(New Haven-WTNH) _ Three New Haven bail bondsmen were charged with bribery Tuesday in an investigation that also resulted in the arrest of two New Haven police officers.

The three are identified as Robert Jacobs, Paul Jacobs, and Philip Jacobs of Jacobs Bail Bonds of New Haven.

According to a former employee of the Jacobs who did not want to be identified they had several ways to skirt the law, not just with police. She claims she was paid thousands of dollars to pick up potential customers and negotiate deals with them. She had no license And knew it wasn't legal. She was paid under the table and in cash.

"It depends on the bond," the woman said. "One bond, he collected ten-thousand on it and paid me 37-hundred."

Her job was to stand outside the police department and the courthouses, steering family members towards the Jacobs bail bondsman. She says she worked primarily with Phil Jacobs and negotiated prices well below what's legally allowed, which is seven-percent of the amount of the bail.

"Three percent at the most, sometimes it was a percent and a half, two percent and then I would get paid out of that," she said.

It was easy money, but she began to see things that bothered her, such as the time an inmate's girlfriend in Pennsylvania sent her $5,600 in cash through Western Union. But she claims Jacobs didn't execute the bond. He kept the money for himself and the inmate's attorney.

"The attorney told him not to do it, that the kid was a scumbag and he kept the money and paid the attorney what the kid had owed him."

And this former bond girl says when other bail bondsman started to warn her that she was going to get in trouble she went to the state police. That was last July and she believes these recent arrests are a result of her shedding light on their allegedly illegal operation.

Sometime, she says, she's happy to hear, is now shut down.

"Good, thank God. I mean, he deserved it. They're not, they act like they're the nicest, most respectable people and they're not."

That woman says she wasn't the only one what she was doing. She claims, there were other people paid to work at other police department and courthouses and she says the Jacobs are not the only bail bondsman who do this.
Author:  tsuggs [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 20:36 ]
Post subject: 
Kill all the crooked lawyers and then the crooked bondmen! :twisted:
Author:  KARMA [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 20:56 ]
Post subject: 
OK...that's it ..send me the link to the weasels.
BUt you forgot the crooked cops.
Author:  Kathy [ Tue 13 Mar 2007 21:25 ]
Post subject: 
This was just an additional article that gave more info on the bondsmen. I think all of them should be taken out and hung. :twisted:
Author:  BondgirlCA [ Wed 14 Mar 2007 15:21 ]
Post subject: 
Today's news said that the Lt in charge of narcotics was released on a 2 million dollar bond...
Author:  Kathy [ Thu 15 Mar 2007 18:26 ]
Post subject: 
http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm ... 7576&rfi=6

03/15/2007
Bondsman insists he’s innocent of bribery charges
Mary E. O’Leary , Register Topics Editor


New Haven Police Lt. William "Billy" White, center, returns to his Alston Avenue home with family and supporters early Wednesday night. Mara Lavitt/Register (Buy Register photos)
-NEW HAVEN — Paul Jacobs, one of three bail bondsmen charged with bribery by federal officials, said Wednesday he did nothing wrong and wants his reputation back.
"What this was about was a bondsman trying to catch a fugitive. We weren’t trying to offer bribes to anyone. We were just trying to catch the bad guy and get him off the street to save ourselves a large sum of money on the bond," Jacobs said.

But state Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the state Judiciary Committee, said the charges point to major flaws in the bail bonds system, and he will resurrect reforms shot down in 2004 because of heavy lobbying by Paul Jacobs and his relatives.

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Paul Jacobs has run a bail bonds business in New Haven for years, following in the footsteps of his father, Robert Jacobs, who has a separate bail business with another son, Philip Jacobs.

All three were charged Tuesday in an alleged kickback scheme involving Lt. William White, a 39-year officer in New Haven and head of the narcotics unit. White was suspended from the force Tuesday and is free on $2 million bail.

White was charged with theft of government funds, involving $27,500 disguised as drug money, and bribery for allegedly tracking down fugitives for bail bondsmen while working for the city.

The police supervisor was recorded in a wiretap saying he made $60,000 in four or five years nabbing fugitives for Robert Jacobs, according to the affidavit.

Neither Robert, nor Philip would address the charges, but Paul did.

"I never had any involvement with Billy White. My position on it was that I was hiring an off-duty police officer, which according to my attorney was legal, to apprehend a fugitive," he said in a phone interview.

According to the arrest affidavit, Paul Jacobs was recorded talking to an undercover agent, offering him $10,000 to find a fugitive in Waterbury.

The price eventually escalated to $15,000 and Paul Jacobs put a blank check (signed, but no payee listed) for $9,500; $3,500 in cash and a letter in an envelope, all of which was delivered to White by Robert Jacobs, according to the affidavit.

Paul Jacobs text-messaged White that the check was for the informant, according to the affidavit. White would not accept the check, so Robert Jacobs converted it to cash, records said.

There are several other references in the affidavit that go to Paul Jacobs’ alleged intent.

The undercover agent recorded a conversation in which Paul Jacobs said the matter of paying the agent to get the fugitive would not go beyond himself and his father.

"(We) pride ourselves on not having a big mouth," Jacobs said.

The undercover officer said he could get into trouble if his employer found out he was taking money in exchange for locating fugitives.

Jacobs agreed and said: "I would be in just as much trouble. So far as I’m concerned, the money is going to an informant and ... uhhh .. or actually there is no money going out... ummm ... maybe with the cash, it is all hush-hush."

The FBI also said Paul Jacobs was told in September 2006, by someone who is now a police chief, that trying to pay law enforcement officers for their professional services was illegal.

Lawlor said at a minimum, the state should move the supervision of the industry from the Insurance Department to the Department of Public Safety.

"The Insurance Department is kind of clueless how the criminal justice system works and what these bail bondsmen are supposed to be doing. They never enforced any of the rules, they just ignored them all," Lawlor said.

The business changed about seven years ago when the way to make money was to deal in volume and underbid small firms, Lawlor said. Lawlor said big companies came in and hired a lot of agents, including gang members, which led to a number of arrests around the state.

Lawlor said the majority of bail bondsmen were in favor of changes "that would bring the system back to some kind of equilibrium. They wanted to make sure there was oversight so their competitors couldn’t cheat."

Philip Jacobs said they opposed the changes because "they would be crippling for the business." He said those who supported it "don’t want competition. They were charging exorbitant rates to poor people that don’t have the money."

Paul Jacobs reiterated his brother’s comments that the proposal was "too drastic," although some reforms might be in order.

As for the defense that the bondsmen thought they were hiring off-duty police officers, Jeffery Meyer, a former U.S. attorney, said you would have to look at the arrangement.

"To the degree there was actually a formal agreement, did they memorialize it in writing, sign a contract ... or was it something more akin to a handshake and a payment in a dark parking lot? That would reflect a lot whether the Jacobs thought they were doing something legal or not," Meyer said.

Generally, however, he said the issues outlined in the affidavit, "seemed to be a cry for better regulation in the field to make the lines even clearer in terms of permissible relationships between bail bondsmen and law enforcement officers."





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