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Bondsmen to ask Noble to stop credit card bail
By Kara Hull
The Journal Gazette
A Noble County decision to allow jail inmates to pay their bonds using credit cards has local bail bondsmen in a tizzy.
And Mike Clingerman of rural Albion, who has been in the bail bonding business for five years, is expected to address commissioners with his concerns during their meeting Monday.
At the recommendation of County Clerk Candice Myers, the commissioners approved the use of credit card payments for court costs during their May 22 meeting. Residents can also pay fines and court costs, infractions and traffic tickets using the credit service Pay Trust, Myers said.
Payments can be made through the county’s Web site or by calling a toll-free number, but the user will be charged a convenience fee to the company, she said.
Collecting jail payments by credit card began Saturday, Noble County Sheriff Gary Leatherman said.
Allowing inmates to use credit cards will take away a portion of local bail bondsman business, Clingerman said.
“Really what they’re doing is they’re taking money from the private sector and moving it into the government sector,” he said.
Marilyn Morr, 75, of Albion agrees. She and husband Jerry Morr, 78, and a member of the Albion Town Council have been in the bail-bonding business for 25 years.
“To me it’s just another case of government taking over free enterprise,” she said. “We consider ourselves very upstanding people … but that’s not the way people look at bail bondsmen. They kind of look at them as a pain in the neck.”
Allowing the use of credit cards for jail payments could lead to legal problems for the county, Clingerman said.
He plans to bring copies of a decision in a Marion County lawsuit last year. It involved two bail bondsmen who sued the credit card service Government Payment Services and the decision, he said, makes it illegal to use credit cards to post bail in Indiana.
Locally, Huntington County approved the use of credit card payments for bail in August 2001 but stopped the practice in July after the decision from this lawsuit was issued, jail personnel in the county said.
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Steve Faircloth
A Way Out Bail Bonds
(220) 204-9733 Cell
NSIN# SF0105
LIC. #704058
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