BAIL BONDSMEN: LIFE IS NOT A `MIDNIGHT RUN'

In the movies, bail bondsmen portrayed by Steve McQueen and Robert DeNiro lead action-packed lives, spending most of their time amidst a fusillade of bullets and bad guys.

Those who hold the occupation say reality is a bit different.

"I saw a movie the other day where a bondsman drove a car through a parking garage chasing a guy," said Tom Beardslee, a bail bondsman at Benton. "That kind of thing doesn't happen. Besides, you don't want to do that, you don't want to end up owing more damage money than you're going to make."

Scott Schnurbusch of Dodge Bail Bonds in Jackson says the life of a bail bondsman isn't quite as dramatic or as action-packed as people think.

"It can be dangerous at times," he said. "But more often we're just guys keeping tabs on people making sure they show up to court."

Most bondsmen don't even carry guns, Beardslee said. "It's my belief that a gun will get you into more trouble than it will get you out of," he said.

The bond process is simple: When a suspect is arrested for a crime, a bond is automatically set by the judge who issued the arrest warrant. Only in capital murder cases or instances where an accused seems likely to harm a victim can a judge refuse bond by law.

If the suspect cannot make the bond, then he can contact a bondsman. The bondsman then charges a fee to make the bond for the suspect. Most bondsmen charge about 10 percent of the total bond.

The bondsman usually pays the bond through a bonding company, which posts the bond for about half of the premium. If the bonded person does not return to court, he forfeits the bond, and the bondsman and the bonding company lose their money.

Usually though, a judge will allow a bondsman the opportunity to track the subject and return him to jail. If the bondsman is successful, he is allowed to keep his fee and the total bond is returned to the bonding company.

"It's the ultimate risk," Schnurbusch said. "We can make money or we can lose it. Most jobs aren't like that."

Beardslee has been a bail bondsman in Benton for over two years and says the job is 99 percent paperwork. A good bail bondsman rarely has to track someone who has "skipped" bond, he said.

The main part of a bondsman job is to be particular about who they bond out, lessening the likelihood of ever having to hunt them down.

Beardslee says he is a good judge of character and usually can tell what kind of person he's dealing with. Before he bonds someone out of jail, he conducts an interview.

He said 17 years as a deputy sheriff for Scott County gave him to the ability to get a pretty good read on people. Of the 360 bonds Beardslee has made, only three have "skipped" their bond.

"I don't do murderers or sex offenders," Beardslee said. "And I don't bond out people with attitudes. Attitude is always a good indication whether or not someone will return to court."

Schnurbush said he carefully evaluates every applicant. He won't bond out those who don't have local ties, such as a family or a local job.

"If they're from Louisiana and have no family here, there's no reason to stay here," Schnurbush said. "I don't have to run them down because I don't bond them out."

He said he finds out everything he can about someone before bonding them. The information could prove valuable if the person does flee, he said.

Most bondsmen require a co-signer to agree to pay the bond in its entirety if the bonded person runs off.

Bail bondsmen operate under the authority of an 1872 Supreme Court ruling which gives them more legal leeway to act than some judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers when it comes to retrieval of persons to appear in court.

If the person does not show up for court, the prosecutor would have to file for a motion of judgment against the bond. Then the bondsman would file a motion for extension in order to locate the person.

Bondsman Jerry McLaird currently is searching for two men who have skipped bond. Catching them is a matter of old-fashioned investigating, he said

"We just review the information that we collected and start running down leads. When we find out where he is, we just go and get him."

McLaird said there is a certain element of danger to this. You never know how a person who is facing jail will react to the person who is going to take them back, he said.

"There have been instances where we have been threatened. Either they were going to kill us or beat the tar out of us. But that hasn't happened yet and you hardly ever hear of it happening."

McLaird said bondsmen often have a poor public image but he doesn't think that's fair.

"A lot of people frown on us," he said. "They think the police go out and work hard to catch them and we just get them out. But we're just another part of the judicial process."

Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney Morley Swingle said he doesn't see bail bondsmen as the bad guys.

"I think for the most part they do their best not to bond out people who are going to run," Swingle said. "They've got a financial interest in seeing that they don't. The percentage of people who run is very small."

Swingle said bondsmen are often efficient at catching those who flee. "They really do trace back to the old bounty hunter days," he said. "They can track people across the state lines while law enforcement can get bogged down in paperwork when we do it. In that aspect, they're very helpful."