Hearing today • An agent for a bail bond firm that benefited from the changes has been subpoenaed. A court official who signed a judge's name in one case has been asked to attend.
ST. LOUIS - A judge said drug defendant Jimmy Gibson needed $50,000 in cash to get out of jail. One week later, Gibson paid just $5,000 and walked free. Nobody has been able to explain how it happened.
Gibson's release - and that of at least seven other defendants, some accused of violent crimes - has drawn an investigation by St. Louis Circuit Court judges, concern from the prosecutor and a complaint to the FBI.
Gibson's lawyer said he had not asked for the bond to be changed. In fact, he didn't know it had been lowered until told by a reporter.
Judge Jack Garvey said he never authorized it, although his name is on a bond reduction order that showed up in Gibson's court file only after a Post-Dispatch inquiry about it.
Court employee Mary Catherine Moran, who had signed Garvey's name to the document, told reporters that if he didn't authorize her to do it, then it must have been some other judge. She doesn't remember who.
Judges looking for answers have focused attention on Moran, whose job as "pretrial release commissioner" is to advise them on what bond to set for criminal defendants. She does not have authority to set or change felony case bonds on her own.
They also are focusing on Bob Block Bail Bonds, a business that benefited in each of the eight examples.
Garvey has subpoenaed the Block agent who wrote Gibson's bond to attend a hearing today to answer questions about it. The judge has asked - but not formally ordered - that Moran attend, too.
Moran insists she has done nothing wrong.
The bail bond company did not respond to messages. Its lawyer, Nick Zotos, said the firm has been around longer than any of its competitors. "The Blocks are still standing, and you only do that with savvy business practices and if you're above board."
Get out of jail card
In all but the most serious crimes, a defendant has a right to release on bail pending trial. That generally means posting money to be forfeited if he or she doesn't appear in court.
A judge sets the amount and specifies whether it must be in cash or can be posted by property or secured through a bail bondsman. In a secured bond, the defendant pays a 10 percent fee for the bondsman to pledge the full amount.
That word "secured" can make a big difference. A $50,000 cash bond requires the accused to come up with $50,000. A $50,000 secured bond requires only $5,000. Bondsmen get no business from cash-only bail.
Moran's office recommends bail terms in a job unique to St. Louis. In every other Missouri court circuit, judges decide on their own what is appropriate, considering the charge and the defendant's past and personal circumstances.
Moran, 59, of Florissant, joined the office in the 1970s as a deputy commissioner and has held the top spot for 11 years. She is paid about $81,000 a year and has six employees to provide round-the-clock screening of people under arrest. The job is sometimes called "bond commissioner."
Under Missouri Supreme Court rules, a bond modification must be sought in a motion to the court, with all parties notified.
In the eight cases identified by the Post-Dispatch, judges initially ordered the accused to put up $1,000 to $50,000 in cash for release. A short time later, each was changed to shift terms from cash to secured, or a court official accepted a different bond amount from what was ordered, with no explanation.
In every instance, there was no record in the public court files indicating who asked for the change.
Lowering threshold
Prompted by the newspaper's questions, Presiding Judge David Dowd said procedural changes will be made. He also appointed a panel of judges to review the policies and procedures, and learn what happened.
In an interview, Dowd said he was "troubled" by the Post-Dispatch findings.
Sources told the newspaper that they have raised concerns about Moran's office with the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI. As is standard practice, neither agency would confirm or deny the contact or an investigation.
Circuit Court Clerk Mariano Favazza said the unusual methods used in these cases amounted to "lowering the threshold for the defendant to step out of jail."
Dowd and Moran agreed during a joint interview last week that only an attorney representing a defendant, the defendant or, in rare cases, a relative, should ask a judge to change bail. They agreed that Moran does not have authority to ask for a change.
Moran said she prepares the paperwork for a change only when asked by a judge.
"'I don't walk into a judge's chambers and say, 'Here, can you change this?'" she said.
All of the lawyers, defendants and relatives who were reached by the newspaper in the cases at issue said they made no such requests. In at least two, the lawyers remained unaware even after the fact.
Two of the judges who signed orders changing the bonds, Ed Sweeney and Mark Neill, said Moran had brought the requests to them. The judges said they acted on Moran's recommendation, and that it has been a longtime practice in the courthouse. Both said they believed it to be proper.
"She's our commissioner and an employee of the bench," Neill said.
But other judges, some lawyers and Favazza all said it would be improper for a non-attorney to seek such a change, as it would amount to practicing law without a license.
"The law is clear that to advocate for someone in court, you need to be an attorney," Favazza said. "There is no difference between going into a courtroom or into a judge's chambers to ask for a bond modification. The end result is the same."
Sweeney said he would like the court to review the issue, complaining, "The language is unclear."
Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said it's an important issue.
"We want to and should be notified every time there is a bond modification request - regardless of who makes that request - so that we may appear at a hearing to represent the victim or provide the opportunity for the victim to appear," she said in a written statement.
"Victims have a right to be present at court proceedings - just as defendants do - and to be informed by the prosecutor regarding hearings, any release of such person on bond or for any other reason, guilty pleas, probation revocations, etc. We take this responsibility to inform victims very seriously."
Charles Barberio, a lawyer, said that when he sought a bond reduction for a client Dec. 23, a judge said the decision would have to wait at least five days for proper notifications. Barberio said he returned Dec. 30 to find that the man had been inexplicably released six days earlier.
Joyce said she is "confident that these occurrences will be fully analyzed, and processes and procedures will be put in place to prevent these types of events from happening in the future."
Thwarting strategy
Whatever is happening, it works to thwart an attempt by judges to use bail as a way to streamline court cases and save taxpayers money.
Many defendants scrape together every last dime to pay bondsmen for their liberty, leaving nothing to hire lawyers. Overworked public defenders may reject such cases, reasoning that if these people had money for bond, they had money for attorneys.
So defendants would appear at hearing after hearing without counsel, jamming the docket with stalled cases until exasperated judges finally appointed lawyers at public expense to free the clog.
Several years ago, Sweeney, the judge, devised an answer that colleagues call a "Sweeney bond" or "split bond."
A judge sets a combination of secured bail, plus cash bail that's probably beyond the defendant's means. To get out, the accused must hire a lawyer to get the cash bail reduced, and still would have enough left over to pay for the secured bond.
It prompts defendants to obtain representation but also pulls dollars from bondsmen's pockets to pay lawyers.
who changed the bail?
Today, Judge Garvey will sentence Gibson, 39, who was convicted Oct. 8 of possession of a controlled substance.
After the jury verdict, Garvey initially refused to release Gibson on bail pending sentencing. But pressed by the defense lawyer, the judge set bond Oct. 23 at $50,000 in cash, knowing it was beyond Gibson's means.
A week later, Gibson was freed after paying a Bob Block bondsman $5,000 to post a $50,000 secured bond.
The paperwork to change bail to a secured bond from cash did not appear in the court file when a reporter inquired at the end of December. Nor was there any explanation of who asked for the modification.
On Jan 8, Moran produced an order, dated Oct. 30, that modified the bond and said Garvey authorized the change by phone. She has acknowledged signing his name, with her initials beside it. But Garvey said the call never happened.
In last week's interview, Moran said it must have been another judge, and that she probably wrote down the wrong name. She said she couldn't recall which judge had called her, nor explain who asked for the change.
"That's where my memory is a haze," she said.
Gibson's lawyer, Jermaine Wooten, said it wasn't him. "I don't think it was ever changed," Wooten said by phone last week.
While Garvey cannot talk about a pending case, he said that in general terms, he would be surprised to find out that someone was changing bonds that he set.
"Judges are very specific when they set bonds. I would never think that someone was changing my order after I made it," he said.
Another cash bond was changed with even less explanation.
St. Louis prosecutors charged Bobby Ray Williams, 62, with domestic assault and armed criminal action in April 2008 after police accused him of striking someone with his hand and a metal pole, and trying to choke and suffocate the person.
On June 20, 2008, Circuit Judge Calea Stovall-Reid set a $25,000 cash-only bail, "due to the nature of the charges."
The next month, Moran's office accepted a $25,000 secured bond from a Bob Block representative, although no paperwork to alter Stovall-Reid's order appears in the file.
Moran said missing paperwork would be the fault of Favazza's staff, which is responsible for maintaining court records. Favazza said they can only file the documents they receive, and that she has circumvented his office.
Post-Dispatch reporters examined about three dozen court files involving bonds written by Block, yielding the eight examples of unexplained reductions.
Moran suggested that non-Block cases were handled no differently, and produced 26 for reporters to examine. All them appeared to follow court rules.
The Block company ranks second in the value of bonds written in the city courts, at $3.6 million in 2009, according to the clerk's office.
Its website boasts that it has been "Putting feet back on the street since 1959!"
Other cases under investigation
In every instance, bond commissioner Mary Catherine Moran's office handled paperwork for the bail changes. Prosecutors were not notified. In each case, Bob Block Bail Bonds posted the bond.
- Emmanuel Mays, charged Dec. 22 with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action. Judge Ed Sweeney modified terms of a $40,000 bond on Dec. 24. Mays' attorney went to court a week later for a bond reduction, unaware his client was already out.
- Harold Perkins, charged Nov. 24 with two felony weapons charges. Judge Paula Bryant set a $20,000 split bond. The next day, Sweeney changed it to secured. Perkins' family said a Block bondsman arranged the switch.
- Terri Marie Jennings, charged Nov. 22 with first-degree domestic assault. Bryant set a $30,000 split bond. The next day, Sweeney changed it to secured. Jennings didn't hire an attorney until two weeks later.
- Darryl A. Haywood, charged Dec. 2 with felony drug trafficking and possession. Bryant set a $15,000 split bond Dec. 14. The next day, Judge Mark Neill changed it. Haywood didn't hire a lawyer until a month later.
- Dontra Snider, charged June 25, 2008, with felony drug trafficking, unlawful use of a weapon and resisting arrest. Sweeney set a $20,000 split bond. On July 3, he switched it to $20,000 secured. The public defender's office said it did not seek the change.
- Timothy Pruitt, charged Dec. 6 with felony theft. Bryant set a $10,000 split bond. A week later, Neill changed it to secured. Supporting paperwork showed up in the court file only after a Post-Dispatch inquiry. The public defender's office said it did not seek the change.
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