N.Y.B.A.A.

State of New York Department of Licensing Services

Bail Enforcement Agents (a/k/a Bounty Hunters): General Information

Effective April 1, 2001, Article 7 will be amended to include a new licensing category: Bail Enforcement Agent (BEA) a/k/a Bounty Hunter.

A BEA is defined as an individual or entity who (for a fee) apprehends individuals who have failed to appear on bond or bail and surrenders them to the appropriate jail or to court.

Employer
Any NON-private investigator business entity that wishes to engage in bail enforcement MUST be licensed as a BEA and comply with the licensing requirements, training (25 hours), and background checks.

PIs
This amendment does NOT have any impact on private investigators (PIs). PIs (whether new to the field or existing) AND their employees can continue engaging in bail enforcement WITHOUT further licensing requirements or training.

Business Practice Requirements
The BEA business and its employees must comply with virtually all the business practice requirements currently in place for PIs and WGPs. Additionally, BEAs must notify local police before attempting to apprehend a fugitive. The form of such notification is to be determined by the local law enforcement agency. Local law enforcement officials may accompany the bail enforcement agent to the site of the intended apprehension. BEAs cannot wear clothes or carry a badge suggesting they are an agent of the state or federal government.

Licensing Requirements

Qualifier:

Experience - Three years' experience as a police officer; an investigator in an agency of the state, county, or federal government; or an employee of a licensed private investigator or at a firm, partnership, company, or corporation where one member has been performing the duties described in the definition of bail enforcement agent; OR twenty years' experience as a police officer or fire marshal

Education - Completion of a training program not less than 25 hours as approved by the Secretary of State (Training may be waived when the person has served as police officer for not less than three years.)

Freedom from Disqualifying Criminal Convictions - Fingerprints and $50 fingerprint fee (payable to DCJS) must be submitted with application for criminal history verification with DCJS. (This requisite also applies to officers, partners, or principles, as relevant.)

Other:

Bond - Surety bond in the sum of $500,000

Application Fee
The fee for each two-year term of licensure is $400 for an individual proprietary license and $500 for a corporate or business license.

BEA Employee Requirements

All staff: BEA entity must maintain in its files an Employee Statement for each of its staff and submit a fingerprint card and $50 fingerprint fee (payable to DCJS) to the Department of State.
Staff actually engaged in the apprehension and return of a fugitive: BEA entity must maintain in its files an Employee Statement for each of its staff and submit a fingerprint card and $50 fingerprint fee (payable to DCJS) to the Department of State. Additionally, it must complete 25-hour training.

STATEMENT OF DET. RUSSELL STANFOR

ON H.R. 2964, "THE BOUNTY HUNTER’S

RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 1999"

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution. My name is Detective Russell Stanford and I am a retired 21-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. I currently serve as the elected second Vice President for the District of Columbia Jerrard F. Young Memorial Lodge #1, of the Fraternal Order of Police. The F.O.P. is the largest rank-and-file organization of law enforcement professionals in the nation, representing over 285,000 men and women.

I am here this afternoon at the request of Gilbert G. Gallegos, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, to discuss our support for H.R. 2964, the "Bounty Hunter Responsibility Act."

Because of my experience as a member of MPD’s Repeat Offenders Unit, I can tell you that bounty hunters occupy a unique, supplemental role in our criminal justice system.

It is important, however, to recognize that bounty hunters are not law enforcement officers. In States where they can lawfully operate, the F.O.P. agrees that they need to be subject to the same type of criminal and civil liability that State actors, such as police officers, are subject to when violations of an individual constitutional’s rights occurs. The legislation being discussed here today would consider a bail bondsman or a bounty hunter who seeks custody over a defendant released on bond as acting under color of State law under Title 42, Section 1983 of the United States Code.

Moreover, for purposes of civil or criminal liability, a surety will be held responsible for a bounty hunter as if the bounty hunter was the agent of the surety. This provision is included in recognition of the fact that sureties are in the best position to monitor and control the activities of bounty hunters, and to ensure that bounty hunters do not engage in misconduct.

Additionally, we also strongly support the provision which requires that a surety or bounty hunter who seeks physical custody over a defendant in a different State from where the defendant is bonded is required to alert local law enforcement.

This is an important point from our perspective as bounty hunter activities may not always be in sync with law enforcement’s. A tragic example from Buffalo, New York, illustrates the dangers associated with irresponsible bounty hunting and the damage it can inflict on local law enforcement efforts. On 25 February 1998, Buffalo police officers answered a call about an individual who was

wanted in Maryland. Officers were told by the caller, a bounty hunter pursuing the suspect, that the man was possibly armed and riding on a city bus.

The officers met the bus and the wanted person fled on foot across an expressway. While pursuing the suspect, one officer was struck and killed by a car. The wanted individual was eventually arrested, but in researching the Maryland warrant, it was determined that extradition applied only to surrounding States. In other words, the suspect would not otherwise have been arrested.

This bill addresses our concern that bounty hunters notify local law enforcement of their presence and plan. We strongly support this section because it requires bail enforcement agents to notify State authorities of their presence before commencing activities and to share with local law enforcement any pertinent information about the bounty or bounty hunter. This is extremely important because it will inform local officers of the bounty hunters' presence and ensure that tragedies like the one in Buffalo do not repeat themselves.

We believe this bill smartly addresses the aim that abuses by some sureties and the bounty hunters in their employ will be curtailed. While the bounty hunter is not a law enforcement officer, he does occupy an important role in our criminal justice system and ought not to be immune from laws protecting the civil rights of all Americans.

Charges dropped against two Bail Bondsmen.

Tuesday, August 28, 2001

By LARRY HANNAN, ljhannan@naplesnews.com

The State Attorney's Office has dropped multiple criminal charges against two Naples bail bondsmen because prosecutors were unable to locate the man who accused the pair of crimes. False imprisonment and battery charges were dropped Monday against Manny Luna and Kevin Nelmes. The duo had been charged with roughing up Guadalupe Alvarez, the brother of a man who was accused of jumping bail. Charges against Nelmes for impersonating a police officer were also dropped. Tony Schall, spokesman for the State Attorney's Office, said attempts to locate Alvarez were unsuccessful and without his testimony the State Attorney's Office didn't feel it could prove its case. The two workers at Express Bail bonds were accused of grabbing, pushing and handcuffing Guadalupe Alvarez. His brother, Jesus Alvarez, was wanted on a warrant charging him with failure to appear in court on a probation violation charge and driving under the influence. Luna and Nelmes went to a site where a bank was under construction at the Shops at Eagle Creek on U.S. 41 East in East Naples on Dec. 28. Instead of finding Jesus Alvarez, they found Guadalupe Alvarez, whom they wanted to pressure to try to find out Jesus' location, Collier County investigators said. Investigators said there was a verbal confrontation, and Nelmes and Luna pushed Guadalupe Alvarez to the ground and handcuffed him. At some point in the confrontation, Nelmes flashed a badge and said he was with the Naples Police and Emergency Services Department, investigators said. Nelmes is also accused of committing a battery against another man at the site. He is still facing a charge of aggravated assault with a firearm due to that incident.

That charge may be dropped as well because that person also cannot be located, Schall said.

NYBAA: We do not have any more information on this case, but if one of these Agents in fact really told this other individual that he was a Police Officer, he should be punished by Law. There are many ways to obtain Information and impersonating a Police Officer is not one of them.

BOUNTY HUNTERS CONVICTED OF IMPERSONATING FBI AGENTS ARRESTED AGAIN; ONE ACCUSED OF SECOND IMPERSONATION

ALEJANDRO N. MAYORKAS

United States Attorney
Central District of California

Thom Mrozek, Public Affairs Officer
(213) 894-6947
thom.mrozek@usdoj.gov

August 14, 2000

Two bounty hunters who were convicted in March of impersonating federal officers have been arrested again after one of them masqueraded as a Justice Department official who claimed to be protecting a Russian prince on the Queen Mary.
Larry Cornell Diamond Jr., 21, of Long Beach, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at the Queen Mary on charges of impersonating a federal officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Robert Hyun, 29, of Norwalk, was arrested Friday on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Security officers at the Hotel Queen Mary on the famous cruise ship observed Diamond with a visible handgun on Tuesday. When they contacted Diamond, he said he a was a federal officer and he showed identification that looked suspicious. A search of records indicated that Diamond registered at the hotel after obtaining a government rate and signing a tax exemption certificate that stated he was official government duties.
A Queen Mary employee identified Hyun as being on the ship with Diamond.
In March, a federal jury convicted Diamond and Hyun of impersonating agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. During a two-day trial in United States District Court in Los Angeles, the jury heard evidence that Hyun and Diamond are “bail enforcement agents” – commonly called bounty hunters – who proclaimed to be affiliated with the “United States Fugitive Enforcement Agency.”
The conviction in that case resulted from a dispute involving Hyun's sister that Hyun and Diamond became involved in. The sister, Morgana Hyun, and her fiancé, Shawn Edlund, believed that one of Edlund’s neighbors in San Pedro may have been involved in a theft of two laptop computers from Edlund’s car. On July 13, 1999, Hyun and Diamond created a fake search warrant on a computer. When the victim – who had nothing to do with any theft – arrived home from work, Hyun and Diamond approached her apartment and knocked on her door. Hyun and Diamond identified themselves as FBI agents and stated that they had a search warrant for her apartment. Both men were wearing holstered semiautomatic handguns, and Diamond also showed the victim a silver badge that he said was an FBI badge.
Hyun and Diamond entered the woman's residence and proceeded to search the entire apartment and her automobile. Once inside the apartment, Hyun and Diamond again told the woman that they were FBI agents. Specifically, Hyun and Diamond claimed to be affiliated with a non-existent branch of the FBI known as the FEA or “Federal Emergency Agency.” During their “search,” Hyun and Diamond asserted that Edlund’s stolen computers contained classified government information, which they needed to retrieve.
During the “search,” the victim's uncle arrived. The uncle, who is a volunteer reserve officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, became suspicious and later contacted the LAPD and the FBI. Hyun and Diamond were charged after an investigation by the FBI.
On July 10, Hyun was sentenced by United States District Senior Judge Edward Rafeedie to 10 months in federal prison. He was scheduled to being serving his sentence on August 14
Judge Rafeedie is scheduled to sentence Diamond on September 11. At that time, he could be sentenced to as much as three years in prison.
In relation to the new case, Diamond appeared in federal court on Thursday, when a magistrate judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for August 24 and an arraignment for August 30.
Hyun made his first court appearance Friday afternoon. His preliminary hearing was scheduled for August 25, and his arraignment is set for August 30.
Both men are in custody after being ordered detained without bond.
Both cases against Diamond and Hyun were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Release No. 00-149

BAIL AGENTS provide critical service to justice system, scholar says

CATCHING FUGITIVES

U of Ideas of General Interest -- April 1999
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact:
Mark Reutter, Business & Law Editor (217) 333-0568; mreutter@uiuc.edu

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Bounty hunters, sometimes depicted as reckless criminals themselves, provide an essential public service and ought not to be outlawed, a scholar argues in the current issue of the University of Illinois Law Review.

The mistaken attack on an Arizona family by masked bounty hunters, which resulted in four deaths in 1997, renewed demands by critics to do away with the practice of bounty hunting and place responsibility for finding and capturing fugitives to the police.

"For all the negatives, bounty hunters provide a great service to the criminal justice system," wrote John A. Chamberlin, the comments editor of the review. "They are a tax-free force that tracks down fugitives, saving police departments the time and the expense of having to do it themselves."

The bail industry employs about 7,000 bounty hunters nationwide to bring back fugitives who have "skipped out" on surety bonds paid by bondsmen to insure that defendants return to court to stand trial. An estimated 35,000 defendants jump bail annually and an astonishing 87 percent are brought back to justice by bounty hunters.

Examining statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice, Chamberlin found that commercial bondsmen are significantly better at finding, capturing and returning fugitives than are law-enforcement officers. In some jurisdictions, police departments captured only one in two defendants who had failed to appear in court after being released on their own recognizance or on bail not secured from commercial sources.

"Simply because there are bounty hunters, defendants released on surety bonds are less likely to flee" than defendants posting other types of bail.

Bounty hunters enjoy broad rights in tracking down fugitives. They can search a property without a warrant and avoid the extradition requirements that police must follow. These powers are based on the legal view that a commercial bond is an extension of jail, thus the bondsman has the same powers as a jailer to control the movements of a defendant.

While it would be counterproductive to subject bounty hunters to the same constitutional restrictions as the police, some reforms of the system are in order given the abuses shown in the Arizona case, according to Chamberlin.

Bounty hunters should be registered by state licensing boards and required to complete basic courses in criminal justice procedures. So far the only really effective state regulations have been enacted in Florida.

Another useful reform would be to require bail bondsmen to carry liability insurance to provide a civil remedy for private individuals harmed by incompetent or violent bounty hunters.

"DIRTY AGENTS AND WANNA BE FEDERALS"

People or Bail Agents, acting this way should be stop immediately before more innocent people gets hurt or kill.

Auburn, New York

In March 1998, retired schoolteacher Cynthia Watkins had her social security number stolen and used to open credit card accounts and purchase a BMW. Early one morning, a bounty hunter forced his way into her home, threatened her with a gun, and told her not to move until he searched the house for the purchased items. (Albany Times-Union, February 10, 1999)

Buffalo, New York

In April 1997, four men calling themselves "special agents" barged into the Linton home with guns drawn. They were looking for Joseph Frazier, a convicted felon who had skipped out on a bond. What they found was a houseful of Frazier’s relatives. The house, owned by Frazier’s sister Laurie Linton, was neither Frazier’s home of record, last known address or collateral on his bail bond. The bounty hunters were later found innocent of criminal trespass charges. (The Buffalo News, May 19, 1999)

In late February 1998, a group of bounty hunters and bail bondsmen from Maryland traveled to Buffalo, New York to recover a bail skip. In the wee hours of the morning, the group called 911 to request police assistance in capturing this individual. The police responded and participated in a foot chase, during which a Buffalo police officer was killed by an oncoming car. The arrest warrant possessed by the bounty hunters was only applicable in states bordering Maryland and thus the group had no authority in the State of New York. The Buffalo chief of police has argued that if the law required bounty hunters and bail bondsmen to notify local law enforcement of their intentions prior to apprehending their skip, the tragic death of his officer might have been avoided. (The Buffalo News, March 8, 1998)

New York, New York

In July 1994, Jrae Mason was sitting on the front porch of her Manhattan apartment building when she was approached by two men who believed her to be Audrey White Smith, a woman who had jumped bail in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Despite her protests to the contrary, Ms. Mason was handcuffed and taken to the police station. Despite police verification that she was indeed who she said she was, the bounty hunters left the police station with her in their custody, kept her handcuffed for several more hours, and then turned her over to the Alabama bondsman at JFK airport. Upon arrival in Alabama, Ms. Mason convinced the local sheriff that she was the wrong person. Three and a half days and 910 miles later, the bounty hunters acknowledged their error and paid for a bus ticket to send her home. (Mason v. the City of New York, 949 F. Supp. 1068)