In a recent blog post called, “Bail Bonds – You Get What You Pay For”, we mentioned the serious problems the commercial bail industry is facing due to unethical and scrupulous bail bond agents. Just yesterday, the Superior Court of Orange County sentenced bail bondsman Ronald Lee Brockway of Respect Bail Bonds in an illegal referral scheme. Mr. Brockway was sentenced to a year in jail, fines, probation, and a six month suspension of his bail bond license.

Bail Bond Agent Forewarned

Unfortunately, this is nothing new to Mr. Brockway. He avoided prosecution in 2005 in exchange for testimony before the Orange County Grand Jury, which helped put away Joseph Cavallo, an attorney. In his testimony, he claims to have received cash monies from the criminal defense attorney in exchange for referring clients.

California Code of Regulations- Title 10, Article 2, defines bail transactions as they pertain to a licensed bail bond agent in the State of California. Section 2071 prohibits directly or indirectly referring / suggesting an attorney to an arrestee for representation. Furthermore, section 2074 prohibits solicitation for bail to any person on the premises of any jail, prison, court, detention facility, and connections to administrations of justice.

Bail Bond Agent Runs Out Of Luck

Mr. Brockway didn’t take the previous “run in with the law” as a warning, but continued his illegal bail bond operations. In fact, he posted his own $50,000.00 bail bond back in July of 2010! It is my assumption that he had a total disregard for the law, which finally led to his arrest and conviction. The truth of the matter is, he will serve only part of his sentence just in time for the reinstatement of his bail bond agent license, an ill decision made in part of the California Insurance Commissioner.