In the News

Drug suspect betrayed by a kiss, bounty hunters say
Saturday, November 19, 2005
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Bounty hunters tracked down a Jersey City fugitive this week by following the man's girlfriend - who led them directly to the man with a kiss intended as a hello but is now a good-bye.

Altelfon "Alte" Lewis, 25, AKA Tyshaun Jackson, pleaded guilty July 21 to attempting to sell drugs in Jersey City, but jumped his $20,000 bail when he failed to appear in court on Sept. 27, said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio.

On Tuesday, bounty hunter Adel Mikhaeil went to Lewis's girlfriend's home on Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City to look for him, but she told him they'd broken up and she hadn't seen him lately, Mikhaeil said.

But the bounty hunter didn't believe her, and had two of his men tail her. A few hours later, the girlfriend drove to a home on Van Nostrand Avenue. There, Lewis opened the door and kissed her, Mikhaeil said.

"She took us right to him," Mikhaeil said. "I said, 'Boys, we got him.'"

After they went inside, Mikhaeil knocked on the front door and Lewis reportedly tried to jump out a second-floor rear window, but saw additional fugitive recovery agents waiting in the back yard, Mikhaeil said.

Lewis went back inside but was soon found hiding in a closet, Mikhaeil said.

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

Bounty Hunter Raid Leaves Family With Questions
What Rights Do Bouty Hunters Have When Looking For 'Skips?'

POSTED: 5:39 pm CST November 21, 2005
UPDATED: 6:19 pm CST November 21, 2005

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Bounty hunters are hired by bail bonds companies to track down people who skip out on their jail bonds, but the tactics they use are raising questions after a Sunday night raid in Birmingham.

The raid left neighbors and one family questioning the amount of force involved.

Erieck King and his cousins were at home when a knock on the door became a frightening situation.

Bounty hunters, including a man wearing a mask, were looking for one of King's relatives who had skipped out on his bond.

"He said if you don't come out I'm going to send somebody in. We (are) going to shoot," King said. "So I went to the door. He got my cousin by the shirt, holding a pistol telling us to come out right now and telling us to shut up and all that."

Deana Sudana, a Birmingham resident, wants an explanation of the rights bounty hunters have to use such force.

"To put guns to their head, with them laying on the floor, that is unacceptable, " Sudana said. "Something needs to be done about that."

NBC-13 reporter Scott Mauldin was able to find some answers -- specifically that bail bond companies have legal and contractual rights to collect when one of their clients skips out on bail.

Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn said her department receives occasional complaints about bail bonds collectors, but they are usually within their legal rights to use force.

Bond companies are licensed to offer bail agreements. Their contract with a client allows for collection of the money or the person.

The law allows for a bondsman to privately enforce that contract.

Police said when someone skips out on bond, they put their friends and relatives at risk to bounty hunter raids.

"I will say that anybody who is signing for a person, make sure that person is trustworthy and is not going to try to try to skip out on that bond. Because, the persons are interested in collecting their money or getting that person, " said Nunn.

Those who use a bail bond company are bonded by contract to show up in court or their collectors can come looking for them.

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

Bounty hunter allegedly opens fire

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News
November 22, 2005

A bounty hunter allegedly opened fire Monday on a wanted man in the parking lot of a west Denver elementary school where students were just getting out of class. No students were injured. The wanted man, Mike Lopez, 24, was not apprehended.

Officers arrested one of the bounty hunters on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Although Jackson identified the bounty hunter taken into custody, he could not verify the spelling of his name.

Jackson said the gunfire near Charlotte Godsman Elementary School, 2120 W. Arkansas Ave., "leaves us greatly concerned."

The situation began when two bounty hunters went to the 1300 block of South Umatilla Street about 2:30 p.m. to look for Lopez, Jackson said. Lopez saw the pair and tried to drive away in a light blue Ford Thunderbird. One of the bounty hunters positioned himself in front of Lopez's car and ordered the driver to get out, Jackson said. When Lopez refused, the bounty hunter fired a round into the Thunderbird.

A chase ensued to the school, where one of the bounty hunters fired more shots, Denver police patrolman Gary Hise said.

"There were gobs of (kids) all over the place," Hise said.

Mark Stevens, Denver Public Schools spokesman, said campus administrators think more than half of the Godsman student population already had left school when the gunfire occurred. Administrators kept the other students inside the building and declared a lockdown.

The school's staff notified parents to come pick up their children, Stevens said.

Sally Atayde was with her 8-year-old son, Tony, and her nephew, 10-year-old Thomas.

"I heard the shots," Thomas said, unable to suppress a smile and a twinge of pride. "Then they locked the classroom doors."

Hise said that although no one was hurt, a pregnant woman at the school began experiencing contractions upon hearing the gunfire.

"Whether there was some connection to this or not we don't know, but she suddenly went into labor," Stevens said.

Counselors will be available today, he said.

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

What was this M-O-R-O-N thinking ?....Escalating immediately to deadly force in an attempted apprehension ?

He had the guy at point blank range and missed ?

Discharging a firearm in a school zone ? I am wondering if this idiot is a graduate of one of the infamous USRB schools ?

Why didn't he simply use an ASP baton and break out the window and then mace or taser the driver ? Why didn't they simply call the police for back up ?..or why didn't they even have the police on stand by in the area to begin with ?

This thing just reeks of pure stupidity, recklessness, no training, and certainly no thinking his actions out.

Now look where he is...sitting behind bars.

Like I keep preaching...recon, plan, execute...also liability, liability, liability.

Take care and God Bless,

Ruffin.

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River City Associates
Decatur, Al. 35601

Felony charge for Red Lion man


He is accused of trying to mislead troopers looking for a fugitive.

By BRENT BURKEY
Daily Record/Sunday News



Pennsylvania State Police accused a Red Lion man of hiding a fugitive by answering the door at a Chanceford Township home and saying a wanted drifter was not inside.
The offense is a felony in Pennsylvania, said Trooper Doug Miller, lead investigator in the case. Miller said that, since the man helped hide one fugitive, he might hide or have others hide him.

That played a role in his $25,000 bail, he said.

Shane Buhrman, 28, was arraigned on a hindering apprehension and prosecution charge Nov. 8 after Brandon Urey, who police call a drifter, was found tucked away in the township basement on Burkholder Road.

Miller said police received information that Urey was at the home Oct. 3. He would not say how police came across the tip.

Urey is accused of beating a man with a bat in August at a camping area along the Susquehanna River in Chanceford Township. Two others, 16-year-old Daniel Earl Bartulis and a 17-year-old, were also charged in the beating and arrested in August.

State police said the attack was revenge on several youths who reported the suspects stole a motorcycle from them in July.

Bartulis was charged as an adult after his arrest. The 17-year-old's name was withheld because juvenile court will handle his charges.

Urey was the last suspect on the run before his arrest Oct. 3, police said. Miller and two other troopers said Buhrman answered the door of the house and first said the suspect was not there.

He was then told of the charges against Urey, and allowed the troopers to come inside, Miller said.

They found Urey in the basement and took him into custody on the aggravated assault charge, Miller said.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Bail-jumper case leads to drugs, stolen mail, fake money
By Brian Alexander

Times Snohomish County Bureau

A bounty hunter looking for a man who had skipped bail found a lot more when he entered the man's home: a counterfeiting operation, stolen mail and drugs.

People who were in the house at the time are cooperating with Snohomish County sheriff's detectives, but no charges had been filed yet, sheriff's spokesman Rich Niebusch said recently.

According to a search-warrant affidavit, a former Lynnwood police officer who is now a bounty hunter found drugs and fake money this month while searching for a man staying in the 2900 block of 153rd Street Southwest, north of Lynnwood.

He didn't find the man, but on the kitchen counter he discovered $1 bills being washed in a chemical mixture to bleach off the ink. Nearby were a computer, scanner and printer that detectives said had been set up to print the image of a $100 bill on the $1 paper.

A sheriff's detective wouldn't say how much money had been recovered — only that it was several hundred dollars.

Counterfeiting isn't as common as check fraud or other kinds of money crimes because it's more difficult, Niebusch said.

"It's much easier to just make checks," he said.

But of many counterfeiting techniques, washing is popular because it uses household items to make bills that appear genuine, said Rob Canestrari, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Seattle.

In addition to the counterfeiting operation, deputies found heroin, marijuana, suspected steroids, fake state identification cards and stolen credit cards and mail in the house.

It could take a while to bring charges in the case, according to detectives, because the drugs are being verified by a state lab that often has more pressing evidence to examine.

Canestrari didn't say whether federal authorities would get involved. It depends on the scale of the counterfeiting and the effect it had on the community, he said.

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

Lance;
This story does NOT sound very good!

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Steve Hedrick
Hedrick & Associates INVESTIGATIVE GROUP
Nederland, TX
TX PI LIC #A-09665
(409) 284-1895
http://360.yahoo.com/ftachaser357
"For every DEFENDANT that fails to appear in Court, there is a VICTIM seeking Justice"

I think I should cease posting the negative.

_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)

Lance, please do not stop posting posting stories like this. Although I believe we would all like to see the positive stories of what we do in the news, I think it is also necessary for us to be aware of this sort of thing as well. We need to know what the cowboys and the idiots are doing out there, and how this makes us all look bad in the eyes of the public. Most importantly, we need to be able to let the public know that this sort of recklessness is not characteristic of the modern professional bail enforcement agent.

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Kevin E. Rose
Indiana Recovery License #243
Richmond, IN
(765) 977-3984