Botched bounty hunt in Butte 'tipping point' to bail bond bill in Legislature [The Montana Standard, Butte] - Insurance News | InsuranceNewsNet

InsuranceNewsNet — Your Industry. One Source.™

Sign in
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Home Now reading Newswires
Topics
    • Advisor News
    • Annuity Index
    • Annuity News
    • Companies
    • Earnings
    • Fiduciary
    • From the Field: Expert Insights
    • Health/Employee Benefits
    • Insurance & Financial Fraud
    • INN Magazine
    • Insiders Only
    • Life Insurance News
    • Newswires
    • Property and Casualty
    • Regulation News
    • Sponsored Articles
    • Washington Wire
    • Videos
    • ———
    • About
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    • Editorial Staff
    • Newsletters
  • Exclusives
  • NewsWires
  • Magazine
  • Newsletters
Sign in or register to be an INNsider.
  • AdvisorNews
  • Annuity News
  • Companies
  • Earnings
  • Fiduciary
  • Health/Employee Benefits
  • Insurance & Financial Fraud
  • INN Exclusives
  • INN Magazine
  • Insurtech
  • Life Insurance News
  • Newswires
  • Property and Casualty
  • Regulation News
  • Sponsored Articles
  • Video
  • Washington Wire
  • Life Insurance
  • Annuities
  • Advisor
  • Health/Benefits
  • Property & Casualty
  • Insurtech
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Editorial Staff

Get Social

  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
Newswires
Newswires RSS Get our newsletter
Order Prints
January 23, 2023 Newswires
Share
Share
Tweet
Email

Botched bounty hunt in Butte 'tipping point' to bail bond bill in Legislature [The Montana Standard, Butte]

Montana Standard (Butte)

Jan. 23—*

Facebook

*

Twitter

*

WhatsApp

*

SMS

*

Email

*

Print

*

Copy article link

*

Save

addasset

json

6c144b3f-b478-5d7d-9cd4-e90d1c23d139

editorial

true

articles

Save

Mike Smith

In response to a bounty hunt that turned tragically fatal in Butte and other incidents, a state official wants lawmakers to rein in rogue bail bond agents and "Wild West" tactics sometimes used to nab fugitives.

Troy Downing, Montana's auditor and commissioner of Securities and Insurance, is pushing a bill that would require all bail recovery agents to be trained and licensed and in most circumstances, notify police of planned apprehensions.

They would have to be 21 or older, could not be convicted felons and must be instructed on procedures for detaining people, their civil rights, the use of force and civil liability, among other things.

It has already received a hearing and strong endorsement from the House Judiciary Committee and is now before the full House.

People are also reading...

* Butte woman confronts man inside her home

* Montana State gets commitment from JUCO linebacker Cole Bullock

* MHSA amends guidelines for co-ops, announces school realignments

* Police blotter: Chase ends in arrest; weekend DUIs; detained for drugs

* Fields of Dreams: CCSLL fundraising for Longfellow complex improvements

* Theft charge against Rocky Lyons dismissed if conditions met

* Fentanyl overdoses escalating in Butte and elsewhere

* 'The best ever:' Butte native Joe Little remembers Evel and Robbie Knievel

* Glance Into the Past

* Avista Corp, NorthWestern Energy, agree to Colstrip ownership transfer

* Botched bounty hunt in Butte 'tipping point' to bail bond bill in Legislature

* Federal building in Butte slated for multi-million dollar upgrades

* Police blotter: Bonked with beer bottle; arrests on Cornell; bad bar behavior

* 'That felt so good': Carroll men knock off No. 12-ranked Montana Tech; Carroll women extend win streak over rival

* Economic outlook: St. James advances cancer care, women's health; hires specialists

"This is common sense legislation to ensure that the public is protected and the recovery agent is licensed and insured," Lynch told The Montana Standard. "I applaud the bipartisan work to make Montana communities safer."

Numerous bail bondsmen oppose the bill, saying it's restrictive and based on the misdeeds of a few bad actors.

The association says the bill doesn't address flaws in the judicial and law enforcement sides of the bail system. Those would be covered in a separate bill being drafted, Looney says.

Downing says there have been more than a few bad incidents, including some that don't make headlines, but he agrees that it's the bad actors he's targeting.

Regulatory authority over bondsmen in Montana is limited to insurance matters, which fall under his office. He says the vast majority act responsibly and play an integral role in the criminal justice system.

But some do not, he says, and their abuses, crimes and violence won't stop until the Legislature provides some boundaries and oversight.

"We are trying to solve a very, very specific problem and that is protecting the public by putting sideboards on this very specific area of fugitive recovery in the bond industry," Downing told the Standard.

He said there were abuses before he took office in 2021 but some recent cases led to public outcry and demands for action. Mercer told lawmakers that a botched bounty hunt in Butte was a "tipping point."

Prosecutors say on Dec. 19, 2021, bondsman Jay Hubber and another man, Nicholas Jaeger, barged into William Harris' house in Butte looking for a bail-jumper. There were several other people in the house, too.

Hubber tased the bail jumper and during a struggle, Jaeger took a gun from Hubber and in the chaos shot Harris, prosecutors allege. Harris, 42, was dead when police arrived. Jaeger, a convicted felon, had joined Hubber to assist in the bounty hunt.

Jaeger and Hubber, both 33 at the time, were each charged with deliberate homicide and aggravated burglary. They have pleaded not guilty, and the cases are pending. Downing suspended Hubber's surety bail license last year.

"This last issue in Butte was, I think, really a tipping point in the industry to say, 'We really have to have more clarity on who the players are, what the training is in the industry, what the communication is before someone is taken into custody ..." Mercer told a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill on Jan. 6.

Frank Cote, government affairs director in the Auditor's Office, said there were other recent incidents.

In one, a bondsman and two employees went door-to-door in a trailer park in Park County, brandishing weapons while looking for a defendant. When they got to the defendant's aunt and uncle's residence, they were told the defendant wasn't there but they got inside anyway, and the uncle was tased.

A year later, a bondsman allegedly shot out the back window of a vehicle as a defendant was driving away from the Town Pump in Three Forks. That bondsman was also allegedly rebating or offering to rebate money others owed on their bonds if they assisted in fugitive recovery operations. That bondsman faces felony criminal charges and in May, Downing suspended his license.

In November, a man wearing a tactical vest that read "agent" allegedly pointed a gun from his car at a bail violator, and the two vehicles crashed on a street in Great Falls.

The man told police the defendant ran from him the previous day, according to court documents cited by The Electric, an independent news site in Great Falls. A bail bondsman said the agent, who now faces assault with a weapon and other charges, worked for him and was helping him find people.

"It's just a situation that is potentially a scary one out there," Cote told the Judiciary Committee. "While we regulate bail bondsmen ... what we don't regulate, and really no one regulates, are what we're calling recovery agents."

Also in the bill

Under the bill, anyone who apprehends defendants for bail purposes must be licensed by the Commissioner's Office, must be 21 or older, have a high school diploma or equivalent and cannot be a convicted felon. Convictions for drug offenses or crimes of "moral turpitude" could rule them out, too.

Moral turpitude isn't specifically defined in Montana law but generally is considered to mean conduct contrary to justice, honesty or morality such as fraud or breach of trust, Downing's office said.

To obtain a license, agents must have at least 40 hours of training and instruction in the areas mentioned previously or proof they have completed training required by local, state or federal law enforcement agencies or branches of armed forces to carry out the duties of a peace officer.

Agents can still use reasonable force to apprehend and detain someone, but they must have probable cause to believe the person will not show up for a court hearing after bail has been posted.

They must also notify local police or sheriff's officials before attempting to apprehend someone unless "exigent circumstances" prevent that. Those can include a tip or knowledge that a wanted person is about to leave the state.

"We don't want to endanger our law enforcement officers coming into an unknown situation," Downing said. "If they've been notified in advance, they know what's going on."

The training requirements make sense for recovery agents who have unique powers usually only granted to law enforcement professionals, he says. And the felon exclusion alone might have prevented the tragedy in Butte.

"I think this is good, sound public policy," Downing said. "I think it's in the public interest, and I don't think this in any way hinders a bond producer from being able to do their job."

Opposition and concerns

Downing says his office talked with bondsmen and later sat down with a number of them and went line-by-line through the bill. Some parts of the bill were struck in response, including licensing requirements for psychological evaluations and drug testing.

But Looney says it was a one-way approach, and bondsmen weren't brought in until a bill was written.

"Instead of saying, 'You know, let's sit down, what are the issues we need to tackle and what needs to be changed,' they just drafted their own bill and said, 'Here's our bill, what do you need?'" Looney said. "They placated us and they wanted to be able to go in front of the committee and be able to say, you know, 'We worked with the agencies to draft this bill,' which is not the case."

Looney told the committee that very few complaints were made to the auditor's office from 2015 to 2020, and most of the complaints involved a handful of bondsmen.

He said he warned Downing's office about Hubber and the bondsman tied to the Park County and Three Forks incidents, but nothing was done until their actions made news.

Looney says the association is working to get a Senate bill filed that would address some of Downing's concerns and tackle issues hurting legitimate bonding agencies.

Under one draft, the felony disqualification goes back 10 years, not a lifetime. Crimes of "moral turpitude" are not included as reasons a license can be denied, Looney said, because they can be interpreted to include just about anything.

The association is OK with some training provisions but wants the 40-hour requirement removed and wants specifics on who will provide the training it, pay for it and oversee it.

And it wants provisions added that address other problems.

For example, their draft bill requires any bail bond surety to collect a minimum of 10% from a defendant before posting a bond and getting the person out of jail.

That used to be standard practice but now, some agents in Montana and a few large out-of-state companies are getting defendants out of jail for free upfront and demanding premium payments later. When they miss payments, agents chase them down, leading to incidents like the one in Butte, Looney said.

With the 10% mandate, he said, "You won't have these guys (agents) going out and chasing guys for non-payment of premiums."

Other provisions would put hiring and licensing requirements on out-of-state ventures so they don't have advantages over Montana agencies.

Judges are starting to release more defendants without bail because they know the out-of-state companies can post them without charging anything, and that raises public safety concerns, Looney said. Association-backed provisions would address that.

The draft legislation addresses Downing's concerns, Looney said, as well as concerns from within a bail industry that saves taxpayers in Montana millions of dollars a year in incarceration, fees and pretrial services.

During the committee hearing, individual bondsmen raised concerns about other parts of Downing's bill, including those on notifying local police about apprehensions.

A limited scope

Downing and his staff say they've had lots of conversations with Looney about the bail industry, noting they listened to industry concerns during a December meeting and made changes in response. They included removing some licensing requirements.

"The bondsmen made some valid points," said Ole Olson, chief legal counsel for Securities and Insurance. "We amended the introduced bill to reflect their concerns. However, we did not agree with some of the changes because they were outside the scope of the purpose of the bill."

Sam Loveridge, communications director in Downing's office, put it this way:

"We want to stay in our lane," he said, adding that the office has no problem with bondsmen seeking changes in other bills.

Loveridge said staff couldn't find records of Looney warning them about bondsmen involved in the Butte and Three Forks incidents, but conversations often touch on lots of areas.

At least two other bills have been filed dealing with bail bonds, including one with at least some language similar to that Downing and Mercer support in their bill. Those are the provisions Downing really wants to get passed this session because they will help protect the public.

"One of my sayings is, 'Bad actors are bad for business,'" Downing said. "Whether you're talking about bail bonds or financial advisors or insurance companies, nobody wants headlines of bad actors in their business so I think most industries support some reasonable regulation."

Mercer said he agreed that bondsman play an important part in Montana's criminal justice system.

"What we do disagree with is that it should be the Wild West out there," he said.

0 Comments

Tags

*

Criminal Law

*

Crime

*

Law

*

Police

*

Politics

*

Job Market

*

Security And Public Safety

*

Legislation

*

Institutions

*

Ethics

*

Sports

*

Armed Forces

*

Business

*

The Economy

*

Trade

*

Weapons

*

Non-criminal Law

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.

https://mtstandard.com/newsletters/thank-you/#tracking-source=daily&ir=true

414

Sign up!

* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.

Mike Smith

Mike Smith

Government and Politics Reporter

Mike Smith is a reporter at the Montana Standard with an emphasis on government and politics.

*

Author twitter

*

Author email

Follow Mike Smith

Close

Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

Your notification has been saved.

There was a problem saving your notification.

{{description}}

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

{{title}}

Save

Manage followed notifications

Close

Followed notifications

Please log in to use this feature

Log In

Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

___

(c)2023 The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.)

Visit The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.) at www.mtstandard.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Older

Selective Insurance Group, Inc. Announces Preliminary Fourth Quarter 2022 Results, Including Catastrophe Loss Estimates – Form 8-K

Newer

[Latest Report] Global Travel Insurance Market Research Study Predicts Massive Growth During Forecast Period Till 2030

Advisor News

  • Moody's reprimands Uncle Sam for squandering Hamilton's vision
  • Bad online advice leads to bad financial decisions
  • Nationwide RetireAssist provides more options, flexibility
  • How broker-dealers can lead the next evolution in financial advice
  • Trump tax bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit and leave 10.9 million more uninsured, CBO says
More Advisor News

Annuity News

  • American National Insurance Company Introduces Smart Start Accumulator Series
  • Security Benefit bolsters its Foundations Annuity
  • National Life: Strong 2024 sales led by 20% life growth, 17% annuity rise
  • LIMRA/LOMA targets consumers with Alliance for Lifetime Income merger
  • Legacy systems a big barrier to insurance industry digital marriage
Sponsor
More Annuity News

Health/Employee Benefits News

  • High court mulls Nitta case
  • Findings from University of Pittsburgh Update Understanding of Health and Medicine (Coverage Retention and Plan Switching Following Switches From a Zero- To a Positive-premium Plan): Health and Medicine
  • 'I Thought I Was In-Network': The Insurance Scheme That Could Leave New Yorkers With Mountains of Debt
  • (Toni Says) Help … my employer's health plan denied $22,000 claim
  • Judge approves $69M class action settlement in UnitedHealth 401(k) litigation
More Health/Employee Benefits News

Life Insurance News

  • 5Star Life Insurance Co. Named One of Forbes' Best Insurance Companies 2025
  • Insurers show strongest financial performance in a decade
  • Seritage Growth Properties Makes $40 Million Loan Prepayment
  • Jackson Awards $900,000 in Grants to Nonprofits Across Lansing, Nashville and Chicago
  • Life insurance sales up 2% in the first quarter, Wink finds
More Life Insurance News

- Presented By -

Top Read Stories

  • Gold Forecast: Gives Back Initial Gains Ahead of NFP – 05 June 2025
  • Regulators wave off criticism, adopt reinsurance asset-testing guidance
  • LIMRA/LOMA targets consumers with Alliance for Lifetime Income merger
  • What cuts, 20% layoffs at NOAA might mean to insurers
  • What Are Robinhood Event Contracts? Everything You Need to Know
More Top Read Stories >

NEWS INSIDE

  • Companies
  • Earnings
  • Economic News
  • INN Magazine
  • Insurtech News
  • Newswires Feed
  • Regulation News
  • Washington Wire
  • Videos

FEATURED OFFERS

Press Releases

  • RFP #T01625
  • TAG Advisors Adds New Specialty Markets Leader Carmine LaCognata
  • Royal Neighbors of America Celebrates 130 Years
  • WealthFeed Partners with Wells Advantage Group to Empower Agents with Next-Level Prospecting and Insurance Solutions
  • Wichita National Life Implements Hexure’s FireLight to Power Annuity Sales and Market Expansion
More Press Releases > Add Your Press Release >

How to Write For InsuranceNewsNet

Find out how you can submit content for publishing on our website.
View Guidelines

Topics

  • Advisor News
  • Annuity Index
  • Annuity News
  • Companies
  • Earnings
  • Fiduciary
  • From the Field: Expert Insights
  • Health/Employee Benefits
  • Insurance & Financial Fraud
  • INN Magazine
  • Insiders Only
  • Life Insurance News
  • Newswires
  • Property and Casualty
  • Regulation News
  • Sponsored Articles
  • Washington Wire
  • Videos
  • ———
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Editorial Staff
  • Newsletters

Top Sections

  • AdvisorNews
  • Annuity News
  • Health/Employee Benefits News
  • InsuranceNewsNet Magazine
  • Life Insurance News
  • Property and Casualty News
  • Washington Wire

Our Company

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Meet our Editorial Staff
  • Magazine Subscription
  • Write for INN

Sign up for our FREE e-Newsletter!

Get breaking news, exclusive stories, and money- making insights straight into your inbox.

select Newsletter Options
Facebook Linkedin Twitter
© 2025 InsuranceNewsNet.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • InsuranceNewsNet Magazine

Sign in with your Insider Pro Account

Not registered? Become an Insider Pro.
Insurance News | InsuranceNewsNet