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“I don’t think it’s done anything to improve
public safety,” Public Defender Carey Haughwout said. “It’s just
increased costs.” Col. Keith Chambers, head of jail operations for the
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, agreed. “It’s a lot of paperwork for
us,” he said of the new requirement that a defendant get a separate bond
for each crime.
Accused serial counterfeiter Jose Mendez offers the most vivid example
of how the law has complicated matters. Before the law went into effect
Oct. 1, the man who allegedly has produced so many fake IDs that even
police are unsure who he is would have been held in jail on one bond.
But because he is charged with 416 counts of counterfeiting a driver
license and one count of possession of an ID of another person without
consent, he now has to have a separate bond on each of the 417 charges.
When jail officials added it up, his bond was set at $2.4 million. A
judge later reduced that to $100,000. “I just set the bond and told them
to divide it by 417,” said Palm Beach County Judge William Bollinger.
Criminal defendants typically pay 10 percent of the bond amount to a
bondsman, who is obligated to pay the entire amount if the defendant
fails to show up for trial. The effect of the new law, Bollinger said,
is not to increase the total amount of the bonds; it just makes setting
them a mathematical conundrum.
Under the old system, someone charged with burglary and grand theft
could have been released from jail on a $3,000 bond. The highest bond
ruled. Now, however, since each charge carries a $3,000 bond, the
defendant has to post a $6,000 bond to get out of jail. Unable to come
up with the $6,000 – or even the $600 a bail bondsman would demand – the
defendant now is likely to wait until the next morning when a judge sets
the bond at $3,000 ($1,500 on each count).
Mike Nefzger, owner of Big Mike’s Bail Bonds, readily admits that the
bill, sponsored by state Rep. Juan-Carlos “J.C.” Planas, R-Miami, was
pushed by the bond industry. But, Nefzger said, it was not a way for
bail bondsmen to make more money. It was to decrease their liability. He
offers the example of a defendant who has a $25,000 bond on a variety of
charges. If he shows up for trial on all charges but one, the bail
bondsman still can be forced to forfeit the entire $25,000. Nefzger
insisted such a scenario is not unusual. “People are weird that way,” he
said. “People make three and miss the last one.” With separate bonds, if
a defendant misses his court date on only one of three charges, the
bondsman will be out only a fraction of the bonds’ total instead of the
whole amount. Further, he argued, the new law will benefit those who
post the bonds themselves, without the help of a bondsman. Still, others
argued, it will increase how much a bondsman can potentially make. Some
inevitably will opt to pay the higher amount, paying the bondsman $600
for what would have been a $300 deal. Although the system is new to Palm
Beach County, Nefzger said, it has been the rule for years in other
jurisdictions, including Broward County. The new law was a way to
establish uniformity across the state, he said.
Bollinger, who is retiring as a county court judge after 35 years, said
he is certain the system eventually will adjust to the change. State
Attorney Barry Krischer already has been visiting law-enforcement
agencies, asking officers not to stack unnecessary charges when they
make arrests. Palm Beach County Chief Circuit Judge Kathleen Kroll said
some have suggested that she consider reducing the bond schedule, but
she said she does not want to do so, worrying about reducing high bonds
for legitimate offenses. Haughwout said the state association of public
defenders is looking at the effect of the new legislation. If numerous
people are being held in jail overnight unnecessarily and contributing
to jail crowding, the organization may push for a repeal during the
spring legislative session.
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