Bounty Hunter Vs. Bail Enforcement Agent

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From: Dirk W.
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 3:39 PM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: RE: Bail Recovery and Bounty Hunting

If the recommendation is to not do recovery work outside of the U.S., then how do governments get away with offering rewards or "bounties".  Granted, most are`for information; however, one example that comes to mind is the "reward" offered for Osama bin Laden or the reward President Regan offered for Castro.  I have also heard stories from creditable sources of the use of recovery agents in times of war such as Vietnam.  How is this possible?  No, I'm not wanting to play cowboy.  I am just curious and have been asked, if recovery work is only legal in the United States, why is "Bounty Hunting" being offered in foreign nations with the consent of legitimate governments.  I have spoken with other agents and no one seems to know. 

Thank you again,

Dirk W

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Great question! 

We are talking about apples and oranges here, which is precisely why I detest the term bounty hunter as used to describe “bail recovery agents.”  The “bounty hunters” to whom I refer are people who, on behalf of a bail bondsman, chase bail bond-secured criminal defendants who have failed to appear for their court date (or have had their bond revoked for some other violation of their terms of bail). 

The people to whom you are referring are “bounty hunters” in the truest sense of the term.  A government or other entity places a reward for information leading to the arrest of…. or the capture of…. or the killing of… etc., etc. and the bounty hunter goes out and tries to collect the reward.

Bail enforcement agent vs. bounty hunter: two different species of animal which, unfortunately, are often confused and, of course, we are also talking about two entirely different industries as well.

Now, to clarify my point, I say that international bail enforcement is a NO NO because other countries do not recognize our system of pretrial release which uses private (commercial) bail bondsmen- they *especially* do not recognize the U.S. bail bondsman’s rights of surety over the bail-secured defendant, which also includes the right to re-arrest the principal at the time and place of their choosing or to transfer that authority to someone else- hence a bail recovery agent.  Believe it or not, bail enforcement is entirely illegal in Oregon, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Illinois for precisely the same reason; these states do not recognize the private commercialization of pretrial release either.  Same goes for Indian Reservations too.

Back to operating outside of the country- which leads us to Duane Dog Chapman who is currently in danger of going to a Mexican prison for a while because he gallivanted off to Mexico and arrested Andrew Luster- a man with a reward on his head as well; his case is a perfect example reinforcing my points here.  It should be noted that Duane Chapman was acting as a bounty hunter in the truest form of the term (my second description) because he was going after a reward being offered by the FBI and the court having jurisdiction over the Luster trial- very similar to the instance you describe in your email.  He was not acting as a bail recovery agent since private surety was not at risk of being forfeited.  He was a nothing more than vigilante seeking his fame and future fortune in this instance.

If you want to understand his situation better I would ask you to visit a post I wrote on my blog; it is lengthy and I do not want to rewrite it again here.

http://www.elscottharrell.com/2006/09/duane_dawg_chap.html

I hope this clears things up for you.

Scott Harrell

Comments

[Scott MacLean]

The goverment often communicates rewards for the capture, apprehension etc. of individuals of interest to them that are beyond their reach. They also add legaleeze stating to the effect of individuals taking on these projects should be aware of the laws in their projected area of operations, and that the Goverment does not endorse or condone the breaking of any laws in the process. Plausible Deniability. If they get what they want, and you accomplished the task, you do so at your own perril. There was a case a few years back whereby two "Bounty Hunters" went to a Central American country and brought back a DR. who was instrumental in the death of some US Gov't. Agents. They were paid, and then extradited back to the country in question at the request of that Gov't.
Doesn't make alot of sense, does it?