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FINALLY, BOUNTY HUNTERS GET THEIR MAN
July 29, 2005
Jessica T. Lee
Valley News Staff Writer
They lure bail jumpers across borders with the promise of a drug buy and remember to look inside coffins when searching for a fugitive, driven to hunt by adrenaline, financial savvy and an awareness of how bounty hunters fit into the justice system.
New Hampshire bounty hunters have spent a year and a half tracking a former West Lebanon resident across the country, and even arranged an aerial search after Robert Owen Elliott and his girlfriend were spotted in Kansas.
Elliott was charged in 2003 with assault on a law enforcement agent, among other charges, after he allegedly hit a state liquor inspector with his car and left the scene. Elliott, 20, was apprehended in California last month and appeared in Grafton County Superior Court yesterday, when he was ordered held without bail at least until he secures an attorney.
"After 21 years, this is one of the most extensive cases I've ever undertaken," bounty hunter Lance Allen Wilkinson told Judge Steven M. Houran yesterday. Wilkinson asked the court to return the $10,000.00 in bail money forfeited after Elliott failed to appear in court in January of 2004.
While Elliott's case is a routine criminal matter, his departure from New Hampshire, and subsequent capture, provide a window into a common, but little seen aspect of law enforcement, the apprehension of bail jumpers.
Bounty hunters are also called bail enforcement agents, charged with the capture of bail fugitives. When a person is arrested, the court sets a fixed amount of money called bail. Paying the bail amount secures the arrested person's release from custody and offers the court reassurance that he will attend scheduled court hearings. If the person does not appear at scheduled dates, he forfeits his bail money.
Some bail amounts are small enough to be paid immediately in cash, but higher amounts sometimes necessitate a contract with a bail bond company. The usual fee for bail bond service is ten percent of the bail amount, and for this fee, the bail bond company covers the rest. But the contract also empowers bail bondsmen, and the bounty hunters they hire, with a broader authority than law enforcement agents have when tracking down bail fugitives.
Wilkinson, and his two bail enforcement associates, Hadley Dorfman, and his 22-year old son, Greg Dorfman, were engaged by Gilberti Bail Bonds to find Elliott, and spent nearly $3,000 in the long chase. They used a network of trusted operatives and colleagues in the pursuit, which was documented in court motions as follows:
Wilkinson lives in Manchester and the Dorfmans live in Hooksett, NH. They traveled hundreds of miles searching for Elliott in New Hampshire and Vermont. Wilkinson said he met weekly with state Liquor Enforcement Deputy Chief Randall Avery, and the bounty hunters interviewed Elliott's relatives and friends many times over the phone and in person. They also conducted extensive surveillance of people suspected of having contact with Elliott.
They also faxed and e-mailed copies of a flyer depicting Robert Elliott and his 29-year old girlfriend, Jodie Towne. The bail agents researched the couple's history, learning that Elliott once lived with Towne in West Lebanon, and that Towne had roots in Kansas.
The bounty hunters tracked the couple to a house in Lawrence, Kansas belonging to a longtime friend of Towne named Brendon Glad. They learned Towne was waitressing at the Holiday Inn in Lawrence while Elliott worked as a laborer, and transferred the information to Lawrence police on Feb. 12, 2004.
But the Kansas officers found the residence empty, and their afternoon and evening surveillance proved fruitless. Police later concluded a neighbor had warned Elliott and Towne of the police surveillance.
Towne's car was found abandoned on a highway just outside of Lawrence the evening of Feb. 13 and the bounty hunters deduced the couple hitchhiked from there. Bail enforcement operatives tracked down a trucker who had picked up Elliott and Towne and said they were heading to California, Wilkinson said in an interview.
Elliott surfaced at Redondo Beach, Calif. five days later when he made a cell phone call to Glad, who in turn told the bail agents of the call. The bounty hunters called the phone number and learned the cell phone belonged to a man walking his dog on the beach who had let Elliott use his phone. They conveyed the information to Redondo police, but the officers could not locate Elliott or Towne.
The Dorfmans and Wilkinson continued to send out fugitive alert flyers throughout California, and their persistence paid off a year later. Elliott was arrested on June 4, 2005 in Seiad Valley, Calif., on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Elliott told Siskiyou County law enforcement his name was Lee Stewart, but a flyer prompted the disclosure of his real name, the bail agents said in court documents.
According to police, on April 11, 2003, Elliott hit Sgt. David Moser of the New Hampshire Bureau of Liquor Enforcement. In a state report, Moser wrote that he and another investigator were patrolling the Kancamagus Country Store in Lincoln, NH, when he saw a man putting beer into a car. Moser observed the driver was a teenager and said he was going to stop the car for unlawfully transporting alcohol.
The sergeant got out of the cruiser, walked up to the red sedan and said, "Police, stop." The driver, later identified as Elliott, stepped on the gas, the car wheels turning in Moser's direction, according to the report. Moser said he moved fast to avoid having his feet run over, and the side of the car hit his body and knocked him down. The injuries forced him into retirement.
In an interview last night, Moser said he was pleased Elliott had been apprehended, and that he had been upset when he had to retire. Now, he said he is "just trying to keep busy. I work part-time in the (Ashland) police department, in the office, doing office work."
Before court yesterday, the bounty hunters were visibly tense, and talked about how important it was to get the $10,000.00 forfeited bail returned given the expense of the operation. While arguing that Elliott be held without bail, Assistant Grafton County Attorney Lara Saffo said, "He is a danger to society... There is just simply no bail conditions that would assure his appearance."
Judge Houran swore in Wilkinson to let the bounty hunter speak for his motion to return of forfeited bail. Wilkinson confirmed the facts supplied in his motion, which outlined the coast-to-coast manhunt, and apologized for Elliott's apprehension taking "a little longer" than he had predicted when he was last in court.
"I find that cause does exist to grant the motion," Houran said.
"Does grant, your Honor?" Wilkinson asked, leaning forward.
"Yes." Houran replied.
The Dorfman men nodded in satisfaction and Wilkinson's shoulders eased down a notch in relief. They get between 10 percent and 50 percent of the total bail amount, depending on the case, Wilkinson said.
"I thought we didn't have him for a sec," Wilkinson said to Hadley Dorfman on the way out of court. "It's unusual that they give the money back."
Wilkinson has made 1,328 arrests and traveled to 27 states and five countries on business. He owns his own bail enforcement agency, Recoveries by L.A.W., while Haldey Dorfman and his son work for Hadley's agency, H&G Investigations. Hadley Dorfman was a police officer in New York City for 16 years and retired as a detective. He met Wilkinson in 2000 and they joined forces in the search for fugitives, as many other bounty hunters do. Greg Dorfman, 22, has been doing repossession work since he was old enough to drive and bail enforcement since he turned 20.
"Once a cop, always a cop," Hadley Dorfman said. "It's in our blood, the need to hunt."
Wilkinson said he became interested in bail enforcement in 1984 when he made $500, about two weeks pay at the time, for helping a friend apprehend a bail fugitive in White River Junction. He spent seven years researching how bail enforcement's role in the legal system, and the result is what Hadley Dorfman calls the "bible of bail enforcement, " a book entitled Fugitive Recovery and the Law.
"We are to the criminal justice system what Fedex is to the post office - we expedite matters," Wilkinson said.
Hadley Dorfman compared the justice system to an ecosystem in that every niche has a function. The concept of bail allows defendants' release from physical custody, bail bondsmen allow assurances of large bail amounts, and bounty hunters enforce bail contracts.
Wilkinson has a motto, a Sophocles quote he loves, "He escapes who is not pursued..."
_________________
Lance Allen Wilkinson
Recoveries by L.A.W.
Serving since 1984
“What is sought is found... what is overlooked escapes” (Oedipus Rex)
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