![[Dyersburg State Gazette]](http://www.stategazette.com/images/nameplate-small.png){kind=small}
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Post comment"I received a (state) attorney general's opinion today that says convicted felons whose citizenship rights have been restored are eligible to serve as bail bond agents," District Attorney General Phil Bivens said Wednesday. "Mr. Baltimore will have to reapply, but he is eligible."
The question of Baltimore's eligibility to serve as a bail bond agent arose when Baltimore formally applied for citizenship restoration earlier this year.
Baltimore freely admits he was convicted of a felony in 1986, some 13 years before he was approved as a bondsman.
He filed a petition March 8 in Dyer County Circuit Court asking that his citizenship, lost when he was convicted of a felony in 1986, be restored.
As part of that petition he listed three convictions on his record:
1. He pleaded guilty to petit larceny in Dyer County Circuit Court on Sept. 15, 1981, and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.
2. He pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit a felony in Haywood County Circuit Court on Aug. 17, 1981, and was sentenced to serve one year in the Haywood County Workhouse and one year of probation.
3. He was found guilty by a jury in Dyer County Circuit Court on Nov. 20, 1986, of aggravated assault (a felony) and was sentenced to serve 60 days in the Dyer County Jail and 34 months of probation.
On May 4 Bivens, who said he believed Baltimore was "grandfathered" into the position, said he would request the state attorney general's opinion.
Bivens said he believed Baltimore's status was safe because he was enrolled as a bail bond agent before the Tennessee General Assembly passed the law eliminating felons from serving in the position.
The state bail bond association and several locally in the business claim that when the Legislature changed the law to take the five-year exclusion out on June 17, 1999, it eliminated those who qualified under the more permissive law.
"I now know that he's not grandfathered in." Bivens said Wednesday. "But he is eligible now to serve in that capacity."
Dyer County Circuit Judge Lee Moore restored Baltimore's citizenship in an order dated May 17.
In May Moore suspended the ability to write bail bonds of Baltimore's employer, AAA-Area Wide Bonding Company, for exceeding the amount of its total bond authorization.
Bivens said Wednesday the firm has not applied for reinstatement "to my knowledge."
The judge warned Baltimore and his employer, Thomas White, not to write any more bonds until their bonding authority is reinstated and ordered them to refund $4,025 they had accepted for a $ 40,000 bond on a defendant in circuit court. The defendant was returned to custody of the Dyer County Sheriff's Department, but may make bond through another company.
White told Bivens he intended to deposit a check with the Circuit Court Clerk's office to more than cover the amount of outstanding bonds and that exceeding the authorization was an oversight.
Bond companies must deposit cash or securities with the clerk's office to cover a portion of their bonding authority. Bivens said state law provides that bond companies may be authorized to write bonds in an amount not less than 10 times their surety deposit.
"Judge Moore treats all the companies the same and makes them deposit 10 percent of their authorized amount," Bivens said at the time. "They'll have to repetition the court, showing they have sufficient funds on deposit."
Bail bond companies make money by charging criminal defendants 10 percent plus a fee of $25 of the face value of the bonds. The companies then guarantee that the defendant will show up for court appearances.
If the defendants fail to show up they can be charged with failure to appear and an additional sentence will be assessed against them. If the bonding company fails to deliver within six months someone who they have written a bond on and who has fled they must pay the court the face amount of the bond.