Bail Bond Company Workers Acquitted

City bail bond company workers acquitted

3 were accused of using same properties to post bonds for multiple defendants

By Julie Bykowicz | Sun reporter
12:12 PM EDT, October 3, 2007

A Baltimore jury today acquitted the owners of a city bail bond company who were being tried on obstruction of justice and perjury charges.

Milton Tillman Jr.; his son, Milton Tillman III; and Bernard Dixon were accused of conspiring to use the same properties to post bonds for multiple defendants. The Tillmans own 4 Aces Bail Bonds, and Dixon is one of the state-licensed bondsmen they employ.

Jurors reached their not-guilty verdicts after about 90 minutes of deliberations -- signaling a "complete rejection of the state's case," defense attorney Steven A. Allen said afterward.




The Circuit Court trial had spanned about two weeks and included thousands of pages of documents and 11 days of technical testimony about the bail bond industry.

It's an industry that some state legislators and public safety officials are trying to change. The Baltimore Criminal Justice Coordinating Council recently formed a work group to study bail reform, and a state court task force recommended changes several years ago.

Attorneys for the Tillmans and Dixon argued that a drive to change the bail industry led to false accusations against their clients.

They argued that any "double-postings" of property by 4 Aces associates were accidental -- pointing out that the company bonds out about 20,000 defendants per year.

"They haven't produced evidence," Dixon's attorney Edward Smith Jr. told jurors in his closing argument yesterday. "They've produced speculation."

In her closing, Assistant State's Attorney Piper McKeithen urged jurors to "use your common sense." She said 4 Aces built its business by "getting people out of jail by any means necessary."

Of the double-postings, she said, "They weren't mistakes. How do we know they weren't mistakes? It happened over and over and over again."

Each defendant was charged with seven counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, which carries a maximum possible sentence of 35 years in prison. Dixon and the younger Tillman also are charged with perjury, which carries an additional 10-year sentence.

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Steve Faircloth
A Way Out Bail Bonds
(220) 204-9733 Cell
NSIN# SF0105
LIC. #704058

Is this one for the 'good' guys?

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

No
they ruined the bail business around here. The son was charged with multiple counts of jury tampering...any wonder why the outcome?

Scott

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R.E. "Scott" MacLean III

"Leaders are like Eagles, you never see them in a flock, but one at a time"

Chesapeake Group Investigations, Inc.
Chesapeake Bail Bonds
877-574-0500
301-392-1100 (fax)
301-392-1900 (Office)

I thought that I had read other articles somewhere on here (?)
go figure

_________________


Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN