State attorney: Bounty hunters out of bounds
Thursday, November 10, 2005
By JOSEPH DEE
Staff Writer
TRENTON - Bounty hunters have no police powers and are not entitled to smash down the doors of private residences in pursuit of bail jumpers, a New Jersey deputy attorney general said yesterday.
Asked if four agents from Tri-State Fugitive Investigations overstepped their authority when they broke into a house on Passaic Street on Monday morning in search of fugitive Dion Duncan, Deputy Attorney General Lori Linskey said simply, "Yes."
The case has sparked wide interest in part because Chaos, the pit bull owned by the couple who rent the house, ran out the front door during the commotion of the raid and remains missing.
It also is shining light on the murky legal standing of fugitive recovery agents, or bounty hunters, who often pursue fugitives independently of local police.
On Monday, Jack Furlong, an attorney who represents ABC Bail Bonds Inc., the Morrisville, Pa., company that hired the bounty hunters who broke into the Passaic Street house, said, "The law is that fugitive recovery agent, armed with active warrants, may enter private residences provided they act in good faith."
Linskey said bail bonds and fugitive recovery companies pin their authority on a 19th century U.S. Supreme Court case. "Bounty hunters try to point to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling - the 1873 Taylor v. Taintor case - from a time when we didn't even have organized police departments.
"We do not believe that Supreme Court case from the 1800s gives bail bondsmen or fugitive recovery agents any police power whatsoever," Linskey said.
Furlong disagreed, but conceded that questions over the authority of bounty hunters are debated nationwide.
"I understand her position, but the bail bond industry as a whole believes that the U.S. Supreme Court opinion is not repudiated by an opinion by the (New Jersey) Appellate Division of Superior Court.
"This is a raging controversy nationwide, the power of the bounty hunter," Furlong said, "because government is speaking with two voices on this subject. (Linskey) has a 2003 opinion stating fugitive recovery agents enjoy no special privileges, and I have an appellate division opinion that says, when deciding how much money to give back to a bail bond company, the first question is, `Did you get the fugitive and how aggressively did you look for him?' "
Linskey said bounty hunters ought to act in concert with local police.
Brenda Livingston, who rents the Passaic Street home with her boyfriend, Darryl Hardee, has accused the bounty hunters hired by ABC of stealing two rings and $750 in cash during their fruitless search of the couple's three- story house Monday morning.
Furlong has denied that Tri-State Fugitive Investigations agents seized any personal property during their attempt to capture bail jumper Duncan.
State Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Lawrence, said bounty hunters leave themselves open to such charges when they break into a house without police accompaniment. Trenton police officers were not present when four Tri-State agents raided the house at 8 a.m.
Turner said she will push for legislation that requires bail bondsmen and bounty hunters to be licensed and that makes it clear they do not have the authority to break into private residences.
"It's just wrong. I can't believe somebody can do that," said Livingston's mother, New Brunswick resident Kathleen Reitano. "I thought they would have to come with a sheriff's officer or somebody. This is the United States, not Iraq."
Meanwhile, the bounty hunters who came up empty-handed Monday got their man yesterday around dawn.
Furlong said fugitive recovery agents located and arrested Duncan by staking out Livingston's and Hardee's house. The couple have acknowledged that Duncan is a friend. ABC has been seeking Duncan for about a year after posting two bonds totaling $4,000 to spring him from jail, Furlong said.
"Darryl Hardee was observed leaving the residence in a dark-colored SUV," Furlong said. "At approximately 6 a.m. he arrived at 424 Martin Luther King Boulevard. He got out of his car, made a cell phone call and knocked on the door. Dion Duncan and another male walked out. All three men were dressed in construction work clothes. The fugitive recovery team approached the house and took Duncan into custody."
Trenton police confirmed Duncan was in custody last night and was being held on an out-of-town warrant and because he was wanted by the Mercer County Sheriff's Department.
Livingston disputed Furlong's account of Duncan's capture, saying she and Hardee remained in bed until 7:30 a.m. "We brought the kids to school, we brought a neighbor to the unemployment office and then we visited our attorney," she said.
Patrick Whalen of the law firm Lord & Whalen said he is representing the Passaic Street couple. An ABC Bail Bonds official has made repeated attempts to contact the couple, he said. Livingston said she was treated rudely when she went to the ABC office on South Broad Street on Monday, but since then an official there has been "trying to sweet-talk me."
"Clearly it went from treating them in a derogatory and degrading fashion to countless phone calls apologizing," Whalen said. "They're represented by counsel now, and their inquiries should come through me."
Furlong said Tri-State agents acted lawfully when they broke into Livingston and Hardee's house. They were acting on a tip that Duncan was sleeping there, he said.
"If Lord & Whalen file a suit against Tri-State and ABC, we will fight them until Hell freezes over and then we'll fight them on the ice," Furlong said.
"I think the primary concern that has been raised to me by the family is that something has to be done to hold these entities accountable," Whalen said in reference to ABC Bail Bonds and Tri-State.
The companies are separate entities but seem to share the same office and possibly even some personnel, he said. There "appears to be a pattern of problems" at the companies, he said. He is representing an Atlanta man who is suing suing ABC and Tri-State for mistakenly arresting him in Georgia on March 9, 2004, and transporting him here. NOTE: Contact Joseph Dee at
jdee@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5704.
