Bail bond employee charged with forging bond

Jan. 14--Authorities have charged a Champlin man with forging a bail bond for a woman who has been charged in four fatal drug overdose cases.

Anthony J. Hanson, 45, who oversaw operations at Ability Bail Bonds in Minneapolis, was charged this week in Hennepin County District Court with two counts of aggravated forgery after he allegedly altered a bond worth $100,000 to look like a $500,000 bond.

According to the criminal complaint, in May, Beverly Burrell asked Ability Bail Bonds for a bond so she could be released from jail. Burrell had been charged with third-degree murder, accused of selling heroin to a man who overdosed and died. She is currently charged in four separate overdose cases.

Burrell's family paid Hanson $18,500 for a bond of $350,000. But Hanson only had a bond for $100,000.

Hanson told a co-worker at Ability Bail Bonds to buy glue and tweezers for him, according to the complaint, then altered the bond.

Burrell's family paid Ability Bail Bonds for the $350,000 bond, but Financial Casualty and Surety Inc. had not received the necessary amount to post the bond. Hanson later told police that he kept the money that Burrell's family had used to pay for the bond and had signed his wife's name on the bond.

Hanson's wife is listed as the owner of Ability Bail Bonds, which has been operating since 2009, but Hanson oversees its operations. He had previously lost his insurance producer's license in 2008 for fraud committed at his former employer.

Burrell was released from jail when her bond was posted on May 29. After Financial Casualty and Surety Inc. notified the Minnesota Department of Commerce of suspected fraud at Ability Bail Bonds, the court issued a warrant for her arrest on June 3. Burrell had already spent more than a week outside of jail before turning herself in.

"We believe Ms. Burrell is responsible for the deaths of four people, and we intend to prove it in court," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said in a news release. "Nevertheless, neither she nor her family deserve to be swindled like this by someone who has the confidence of the court system."

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