|
Mark Sayre, Investigative Reporter
I-Team: Bounty Hunters Burst Into Local Day Care
July 19, 2007 06:18 PM PDT
Over the past several months the Eyewitness News I-Team has been bringing you stories about the local bounty hunter industry. Under Nevada law, bounty hunters have a wide latitude to burst into private property while doing their jobs.
The first stories on bounty hunters involved incidents of them bursting into private homes. But then Eyewitness News received a call that had to be checked out to be believed.
A team of bounty hunters burst into to a local day care center full of dozens of children in order to gather personal information about one child's mother. That mother was not even there at the time. And it was all caught on a dramatic 911 tape exchange between the center's director and Metro Police.
At the Heartworks Family Center, games, painting and reading are some of the main activities for the kids. The staff keeps a close eye on their charges. But they never imagined they would have to protect the kids from bounty hunters.
"A man came in the door, and he didn't say who he was. He didn't say hello, he didn't say anything. He had a huge badge; he threw it in my face, and he said 'I'm here and I want to see your files and I want to see your kids. And then he said 'bounty hunter,' " said Theresa Sabatino, director of the Heartworks Center.
Sabatino was at the front counter when three bounty hunters burst in on Nov. 7, 2005, at about 1 p.m. "So I just said 'you're not getting near our children, you are not getting near our files.' And he said I am going to arrest you -- do you get who I am? I said 'I don't care who you are. You know, I really don't care who you are,' " she said.
"He took out a Nevada Revised Statute that he had written on a card, and he threw it at me. And then said 'I am going to take you down, I have had it. I am going to take you down.' And he patted holster, and he had a gun," Sabatino explained.
Sabatino then called 911, explaining a bounty hunter was inside the front office as more than 60 children were on site being cared for that day.
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: And he is looking through my paperwork that is confidential. He said his going to arrest us.
Metro 911: He says he is a bail bondsman?
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: Yes.
As officers were on the way, you can hear on the 911 tape Sabatino comforting her co-workers.
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: Come on, honey. I know, it's OK.
Unknown Voice: It's confidential paperwork!
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: I know that, and my father will deal with this later, OK?
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: Hello, are you there?
Metro 911: Hang on a second.
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: It's escalating.
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: Stop, stop, stop, stop!
Metro 911: Is he armed, ma'am?
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: I'm sorry.
Metro 911: Is he armed?
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: I believe so. He is a bounty hunter, he's got three of them here and there's one in the front of my building. They are after one of the women here who is a parent. Okay, I am sorry, but he is violent.
Under Nevada law bounty hunters are legally able to make forced entry into private property to arrest fugitives.
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: I can't have this here. This is a child care center for God's sake. They have her contact numbers; they need to do this elsewhere. He is threatening to arrest all of us now.
Sabatino then breaks down and begins to cry on the 911 tape.
Theresa Sabatino/911 Call: I'm sorry it is just that I have 60 children here that I am responsible for and a staff of seven and the man is standing there telling us -- he's refusing to leave my building and he says he is going to put my child care director's hands behind her back and arrest her.
Sabatino wrote to state and local lawmakers about this incident and received no reply.
The state law on bounty hunters was last updated in 1999. The power allowing bounty hunters to enter private property was left untouched. But Sabatino continues to wonder how is this allowed?
"This is wild, wild, wild, west and I think -- I hope we have come far enough now that people have to be held accountable for what they do and what they did that day was unconscionable. It really was, it was horrible," Sabatino said.
The bounty hunter involved in this incident is Christopher Ball from Silver State Recovery in Henderson. Ball does have a state-issued bail agent license. The I-Team spoke to Ball several times on the phone over two weeks, and he initially agreed to do an interview about this case. But then he stopped taking the I-Team's calls and did not return two follow-up messages.
Metro Police were sent to the Heartworks Family Center but, in the end, there was nothing they could do because officers on the scene determined no laws had been broken.
In order to get a license, bail enforcement agents -- or bounty hunters -- in Nevada need two weeks of training both in the classroom and in the field. They also must pass a written exam. But industry veterans admit that training does not weed out all of the bad operators nor prevent otherwise good agents from making bad decisions.
Email your comments to Investigative Reporter Mark Sayre.
|
