The Original Case: A Calculated Risk

I was hired to secure the release of the client above, whom we'll refer to as Skye. However, I had a strong hunch that she wouldn't show up for her court dates. After reviewing the risk factors, I determined this was not a qualified risk I was willing to take on.

Her father on the mainland wanted her released, so I insisted on a full cash bail arrangement to protect myself from liability. He paid several thousand dollars - the entire cash bail amount - which meant he would bear all the financial risk if she failed to appear.

This differs from a traditional bail bond, where my bail company assumes the primary liability of paying the court the full bail amount if the defendant fails to appear. In the bail bond scenario, I'm putting my own money at risk.

However, in this cash bail arrangement, I functioned as an intermediary. The father's money was at stake, not mine. This allowed me to facilitate Skye's release without any financial risk to myself or my company.

Remember this key difference between cash bail and bail bonds—it will be important later.

The defendant is a very attractive, stunning even, young female who lives a jet-setting lifestyle on other people's tab. My research shows that she is a sugar baby living an Instagram lifestyle, as proven by travel photos and her profile I found on the website seeking.com. It was obvious that this girl, who is unemployed, got away with whatever she wanted, despite obvious mental health issues and no source of income. Affluent men, who would later promptly file temporary restraining orders against her after the honeymoon phase ended, litter Skye's criminal history on eCourt Kōkua.

A Cautionary Tale with a Legal Lesson

As a seasoned bail agent, I spotted these red flags immediately—which is exactly why I insisted on the full cash bail arrangement that protected me from liability. Unfortunately, a younger, up-and-coming bail agent wasn't as cautious. He posted a traditional bail bond for Skye, putting his own money on the line.

Now that she's predictably failed to appear, he's attempting to recoup his losses through fugitive recovery. However, the state is actively obstructing his efforts—an unreasonable act, in my opinion, against an honest small business owner simply trying to mitigate his financial losses.

Enter the New Bondsman

The new bondsman, who posted an $11,000 bail for Skye, unfortunately took on a bad risk.

To his credit, the new bail agent knows exactly where Skye’s been rearrested on the mainland. Despite his offer to pay for any extradition fees in exchange for the $50,000 warrant to be entered into the NCIC (National Crime Information Center), the prosecutor’s office has instead declined extradition.

Without the prosecutor’s office entering the warrant into the NCIC, there’s no way for mainland law enforcement to arrest and hold Skye on her Hawaii bench warrant. Instead of being sent back to Oahu, Skye is allowed to go free without any consequences for not showing up to court in Hawaii..and somehow the bail agent, as we speak, is expected to pay $11,000 to the court.

A Word on Extradition

When wayward clients go so far as to leave the jurisdiction, there's a bitter truth we have to recognize, and it's simple: not all defendants operate in good faith and are interested in coming back to make good on their commitments to the court. Instead, they have to be apprehended in another jurisdiction, then extradited back to Hawaii.

The NCIC Challenge

It's always a really huge problem to get out-of-state officers to recognize an out-of-state warrant so that they will process an arrest and hold somebody on an extradition hold. In order for this to be possible, they need to check the NCIC themselves. There's always difficulty when local law enforcement—especially in rural areas where NCIC records aren't referenced regularly—needs to show a warrant is active and then hold somebody on an NCIC extradition hold.

It's a very difficult task to accomplish, but not impossible. And when you're looking at an $11,000 forfeiture, so long as you're able to avoid paying that money, it's time and effort well spent.

Coming Next Issue

This entire situation is nothing new—I've been through it many times before. In the next issue of Jail Mail, we'll do a deep dive into the past precedents that set aside forfeitures or officially establish that bail agents need not pay the forfeiture amount when the government refuses to pursue extradition. We'll showcase the amazing work of attorneys you know and respect, who have already done the heavy lifting, and taken these exact issues to the court and secured the proper resolution.

Stay tuned folks, part two will be a legal BANGER 😘

Be well,

Jail Mail Nick