$500 cash only bail bond, ...error made by bondsman.

What is the name of your state? Iowa

I had been arrested on April 15, 2004 on two separate charges, both are listed as follows;

1) Bench Warrant "Failure to Appear" for child support hearing.
[charge required $500 cash only bond to be posted]

2) Driving While License Suspended
[charge required a signature for bond]

Shortly after the arrest, a long-time family friend of mine had been contacted, and he'd decided that he would put up the $500 cash for my bail. He contacted a bail bondsman by phone, and afterwards had went down to the bondsmans office where he had signed the signature bond on the DWLS charge. He'd counted out the $500 and then handed it over to the bail bondsman. The bondsman had taken the $500 from my friend, and brought the money into the jail, which is where he had presented me with three separate documents, pointing out the "X's" indicating where I had needed to sign my signature. He gave me a buisiness card with my court date and time information written on it. I had then asked him who had posted the cash bond, ...his response, "Not too sure, ..some gentleman, ..I believe that he's outside waiting for you." Then my personal property items were returned to me, and I was finally released.

I had appeared in court 4-23-04 on both of the above charges. When I had appeared at the Child Support Recovery office, the states attorney had told me that the $500 cash bond I had posted would be applied to my child support, and that all she needed was my signature to show that I had been informed of this action. I had then informed her that I could not give her my signature, quite simply because I did not post the $500 cash bond, so it was not up to me, nor was it my decision to make. I informed her that she would need to contact (the name was given) the person that had actually posted the cash bond on 4-15-04. States attorney had told me that her paperwork showed that it was me who'd posted the $500. I explained to her that this was an error made by the bail bondsman. Furthermore, the jails records would clearly indicate that I had didn't have the money when I was arrested, so it was not possible for me to have posted it. She agreed to a continuance on the matter, which was set for 4-28-04.

The matter was continued on 4-28-04, ...the bail bondsman agent, my friend, my appointed attorney, and myself, all had appeared at the states attorneys office at the courthouse, and discussed was the order of events that had occured regarding the posting of the bond on 4-15-04, this was explained to her in detail by both the bail bondsman and my friend. At that time, the bondsman had explained that the error made was completely on his part, and that he did receive $500 cash from my friend, and that is who was supposed to sign, not me. The $500 cash bond was ordered to be released from Child Support, and was signed by Judge XXXXX.

On 4-29-04 I had received a letter from the Clerk of Courts stating that the $500 cash bond was being held, or setoff because their records indicated that I owed for some past due traffic court fines. I called their office and explained that the posted $500 cash bond was not my money, nor was it posted by me, and as recent as only one day prior to, this had all been reviewed and explained at the states attorneys office upstairs at the courthouse. They informed me that they don't get their chain of command from the child support office, and that she was taking the paperwork back to again be reviewed by the Judge who'd originally released it. Several days later, I was told that the Judge reviewed it, and nothing would change. I was again informed of my right to contest the setoff.

A written letter to contest the setoff was filed at the Clerks Office, and was signed by both my friend and myself. They mailed me the notification of the hearing date set for 5-27-04. Quite confusing though because it says:

Plaintiff/Petitioner : Iowa Dept. of Human Services

.VS

Defendant: (my name)

Why? This was already ordered to be released from CS, ...and so I thought that this Setoff was now initiated by the Clerk of Courts with regards to my past due traffic fines.

It will not be any problem to do this all over again , however, I don't know why it would be deemed necessary for all of us (the bail bondsman, my friend, and myself) to present this all over again. Any help would surely be appreciated.

Thanks!!!
reeB

The County is keeping the money to pay off old traffic tickets? The money should go to pay your child support. Don't know about Iowa, but my ex was arrested for non- payment of child support in Texas. A friend also made his bond. No bondsman was needed as the amount of the bond, $2,000, was paid to me (a few months later). If the bond is not going toward paying child support, you should still be in jail as the bond was posted for non-payment of child support.

No ma'am, ...I was not arrested for non-payment of child support, ...I was arrested because there apparently had been a hearing setup, there was no notification ever sent to neither myself or my attorney, ..and usually in the past this was always how they did things, they would send me and my attorney a notification letter, and my attorney would send me a second copy of the letter also. Whatever happened to cause the mix up is beyond me. Fact is, that I was arrested for "Failure to Appear" regarding a support hearing, which required a $500 cash only bond. If you would have read the post and payed attention to the events, the only reason that a bondsman was involved was because of the second charge of "Driving While License Suspended", this required a signiture for the bondsman to put up $375 on a bond to assure my appearance. If I didn't show up, then the person who had signed the bond would then have to pay the bondsman $375.

The bail bondsman was rather new to the profession, he acknowledges that he prolly shouldn't have taken the $500 from my friend to bring into the jail. The only reason he did so, was because it was 3:00AM, and if he hadn't brought the $500 into the jail, he said that my friend prolly would have been waiting for a very long time before they would finally get a chance to see him. The bondsman clearly made the error of having me sign the form stating that I posted the $500, when in fact it was NOT me at all. The reason it was being held now, is because I have unpaid traffic fines, the bond still has my signature made in error, How does this ever get straightened out???

Thanks for the response!
reeB

"I had appeared in court 4-23-04 on both of the above charges. When I had appeared at the Child Support Recovery office, the states attorney had told me that the $500 cash bond I had posted would be applied to my child support, and that all she needed was my signature to show that I had been informed of this action."

*****Obviously you owe back child support or this would not even be an issue, sir.

"my friend prolly would have been waiting for a very long time "

*****I believe the word is probably, sir.

"*****I believe the word is probably, sir."

Click to expand...

Well sir , "prolly" is slang for "probably". It's rather common to see people quite often shortening up words, such as the word "little", commonly seen as "lil bit" or "lil more". Of course, using slang certainly isn't displaying proper english grammar, however, you obviously understood what I meant. I had used "prolly" as slang, and that's prolly how I had intended it to be, therefore, no correction was necessary.

*****Obviously you owe back child support or this would not even be an issue, sir.

Click to expand...

You are correct, I do owe back child support, I do not contest that. However, when my friend had posted the $500 cash only bond, the sole purpose of the bail bond was to insure that I would appear in court, and that is certainly what I did. A bond or obligation given by a prisoner and his surety, is to insure the prisoner's appearance in court, at the return of the writ.

In any event, if it had been I who'd posted the $500, then the action to offset the $500 cash bond would certainly be appropriate, and I wouldn't have any problem with them putting that money towards my child support. However, that is NOT the case here. The bond was posted by my friend, and he had done so to insure my appearance in court on 4-23-04, to which I had fulfilled when I appeared on that date. Now, the $500 should rightfully be returned to the person who had posted it (my friend). It certainly is NOT right for his funds to be held because of my back child support, this clearly is not his obligation, it's mine.

Why don't they just mandate that a payment of no less than $500 be paid in full before one can be released from county jail? I'll tell ya why, and I'd be willing to bet, that there wouldn't be near as many people that get bailed out of jail, ...what do you think??? What they're doing is pure and simple BS. My friend certainly wouldn't have posted this money if he would have been told that he wasn't ever going to get it back!! They should tell people this first, not after the obligation to appear has been fulfilled.

If the money is credited to your child support, why don't you just pay your 'long time family friend' back? Then everyone is happy. You have $500 less owing on your back child support, your child gets the benefit of the money that is rightfully owed for their support, your friend is paid back and all is right with the world!

What I don't understand is why you would shirk your duties as a parent and not want your child support arrears paid?

i honestly don't think he is trying to get out of the support, he had admitted he owes and therefore is fully aware of the fact it is there. i think he is just concerned about his friend funds. maybe his friend needs that money for something else, whatever it may be, and maybe he, himself, doesn't have the cash ( at least the full amount) at ready. i think he has a valid point and he doesn't seem to be "hiding" from anyone as to run from his responsabilities.

just my $.02

speed

Speedcam - Thank you for your response! You're right, I am just concerned about my friends funds, and I should be. He is not happy at all about this, which puts all the pressure back onto me because it was my deal. It really shouldn't matter if he has other plans for the $500, the whole point is that the money is his, therefore it should be returned to him, in full.

Joe Schmoe said:

If the money is credited to your child support, why don't you just pay your 'long time family friend' back? Then everyone is happy. You have $500 less owing on your back child support, your child gets the benefit of the money that is rightfully owed for their support, your friend is paid back and all is right with the world!

What I don't understand is why you would shirk your duties as a parent and not want your child support arrears paid?

Click to expand...

Joe Schmoe - I'm thinking that maybe you're not seeing my point here. If I had $500 in my pocket, then that would probably change the dynamics of this whole ordeal. Many people would rather just let it go, thinking that contesting would just be a waiste of their time. However, I am contesting this simply because the fact that what they're doing here is wrong in every aspect. When the appearance is made in court as promised, the posted money should be returned to the person that had posted the bond, whether it's a bondsman, or a third party such as my friend. If it turns out that that person had some unpaid tickets, child support, or whatever, then it would be appropriate for the clerk of courts to attempt an offset of the funds in an effort satisfy whatever delinquet debt(s) there might be, and return any remainder that might be leftover, if any. The family friend who'd posted the $500 cash bond, did so thinking that it would be returned to him in full, after I had made the court appearance, ...he is not so financially well off to where it wouldn't make any difference whether he got it back, or not. Furthermore, whatever his finacial situation might be, makes absolutely no difference at all, and is completely irrelevant. The funds he'd posted were to be returned to him, and the clerk of courts is saying that it is being kept to pay for whatever debt(s) that I have, ...my court debts are certainly NOT my friends resposibility to pay.

I'm not shirking my duties as a parent, in fact, this whole ordeal has absolutely nothing to do with my child support. A friend was trying to help me, and he ended up getting screwed, ...now, naturally he isn't too happy with me, possibly even thinking that I knew that this would happen, I really dunno. In any event, he is out $500 because of my debt situation. This is NOT right for them to do this crap to people. My family has known this man since before I was born, ...and now this sort of thing has been a burden on our friendship.

Maybe...

the old adage about never borrowing money from a friend applies here?? Hard way to learn a lesson tho'....

That old adage doesn't apply here at all, and there is no such lesson to be learned, ...I DIDN'T BORROW THE MONEY FROM THE GUY!!!!!!!

Geesh! When I went to jail, it was 3:00a.m. in the morning, and I had planned on just staying in jail until court at 9:00A the next morning, which is most likely when they would have let me sign out on my own recognisance, or signature bond and then surely I would have been released.

My girlfriend was right there when I was arrested, she was the one calling around to inform the family about what had happened and to tell them that I was in jail.

So anyway, when they came to my cell and rattled the key in the door and woke me up at 5:00A, ..hell, I didn't know what was going on, the jailor simply said, "Rise and shine, ..Let's go, ...you're outta here, man!"

I had no idea about what time it was, and I had no idea about any of the events that had taken place outside the jail leading up to my release, ...I had no clue what was going on, nor did I know what had happened to initiate my release from jail, ...PERIOD!!!

All I know was that there was a Bondsman standing there with 3 documents, pointing out the "X's" where I needed to sign, ...probobly a common thing to do, I imagine because when someone just wakes up from a dead sleep and isn't quite coherent enough to read through three pages of stuff, ..especially reading through crap that doesn't make any sense even when you're wide awake!

Are you missing the big picture here, man? You failed to appear for your child support hearing. (Probably because you are in the hole big time, but I digress) You are arrested because of this. Who's fault is this? PAY THE MAN!

When you owe back child support, believe me, whatever funds they can get their hands on, they will. And I cannot argue with this, because there is at least 1 innocent child in this picture who should benefit from that money.

You could have avoided all of this by showing up at your hearing. Or how about this, maybe not being so far behind in your child support?

You have come here to figure out a way to avoid paying this $500 towards your child support. That is deplorable and you should be ashamed! Hopefully no one on this board will assist you further because that is taking food and shelter away from an innocent child.

As far as I am concerned, you are just another boy playing at being a man. Your first duty should be to your child, not your long time family friend.

I am so damn sick of this thread.

Did anyone notice that not once has our original poster, oh yes, the same one who gives legal advice to OTHERS, hasn't hit on the ONLY solution available to him?

Simply pay the 'friend' back. Even if it takes $10 a week.

guess the 'system' is at fault here. Just as the 'system' is at fault for him being so far behind in child support or not providing free beer or a rifle rack in the back of that dirty pickup truck.

I can understand what he's saying just fine, and I'd say he makes a very good point as well. Do the rest of you people really think that it's right for the courts to take one mans money to cover someone elses debt???

Also, after reading another thread by this same author located at: https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=178567&

although its somewhat lengthy, it makes it somewhat easier to understand his particular situation.

just my $0.02

Yep, it's me again. I just wanted to let all of those who doubted me on this case, that the "contested hearing" was held on May 27th, 2004 ...and YES, I WON!!!

(Click here to read the order) "IT IS ORDERED!!!"

Please note that to protect the listed names of the people involved, they have been blackened out. It still clearly shows my point.


krispenstpeter, Joe Schmoe, Tinaa, Tunie, ...maybe you should try to step out of them sandals and look at it from another persons perspective. I still respect your opinions, were some valid points made, ...but the clerk of courts has no right to withhold one mans money to pay for another mans debt(s), ...that just simply would not be right!!!