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In years past, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office has interpreted state law regarding bond forfeiture in a way that some people say favored the bail bonds industry rather than taxpayers. During the long reigns of former DAs Tim Curry and Joe Shannon, defendants who skipped town before their trials didn’t necessarily leave their bond agents on a financial cliff. The DA’s office granted extensions, settled for lower amounts, or otherwise gave bond agents wiggle room when it came to repaying forfeited bonds. Without having to cough up 100 percent of the bond, the bond agents did not always feel an urgency to track down people who skipped bail. A bond agent could wait for weeks, months, or even years for the suspect to be picked up on a warrant and returned to jail by police. This saved money on detective work and bounty hunters.

An investigation into felony bond forfeiture cases by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2012 revealed that some defendants had been missing for years and that county officials had not collected the full bond amount in the majority of those cases. The newspaper estimated that millions of dollars remained uncollected.

Things are changing under Tarrant County’s first woman district attorney. Voters elected former state district judge Sharen Wilson as the new DA in 2014, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Since then, she has already made in-house changes such as extending work hours and shaking up personnel. She oversaw the creation of a unit to review prisoners’ claims of wrongful convictions. Now she is moving closer to a zero forfeiture policy, meaning attorneys and agents who post bonds will more likely be liable for paying the full amounts when suspects flee before their trials.

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“We do intend to request 100 percent repayment of the bond under the circumstances that are laid out by the statute,” said DA spokesperson Samantha Jordan. “We will be holding people responsible to the bond they commit to.”

Some bond agents, particularly those who are in arrears on their bond forfeiture payments, might not be too happy about this change. But others applaud Wilson.

“It’s a good thing,” said Brian Couch, a bounty hunter and manager of Big Bubba’s Bail Bonds. “It makes the bondsmen monitor their defendants. We should be looking after them and returning them when they miss court.”

Couch said he knows of a local bondsperson who is currently more than $1 million behind in his bond forfeitures. That guy has written a $100,000 bond for only $800 down from the defendant, Couch said.

“We have had an easy run at it for a long time,” Couch said. “If [Wilson] doesn’t enforce some type of ethics on us, who is going to?”

1 COMMENT

  1. Brian Couch is talking about ethics. He is the biggest crook, con-man, unethical individual out there. He should not be allowed to work in this business, from ripping off clients, investigators and the treatment of individuals he has arrested.

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