Emily Pacheco is halfway through an explanation of “good” bail and “bad” bail when the woman and her two young children walk in. Over the next hour, I would learn, firsthand, the real meaning of the two.
I had come here to the corner of West 13th Avenue and Delaware Street, to Emily Pacheco’s All Around Bail Bonds, to understand the fallout if counties decide to release without bail more and more people accused of low-level crimes as a way to save on jail expenditures.
My hunch is, it will put back on the streets an entire corps of criminals with zero interest in returning to court to face the judicial music. Catch us if you can, they will all sing.
The pretrial release-without-bail movement has already cost Pacheco about half her business, she estimates. It was inevitable, she figures, given that cash-strapped counties are eager to avoid the expensive process of jailing suspects.
She has been in the business for 16 years and has always viewed her job as the last and safest stopgap in the system between communities and those who violate the law.
Yes, she charges anywhere from 10 percent to 15 percent on any given bond. Still, she remains liable for the total amount, should those she bonds out not show.
The woman wanted two bonds — one for the father of one of her two children, the other for her boyfriend. Both had been arrested the day before.
The father was being held on $75,000 bail for possession of narcotics with intent to sell. The boyfriend was being held on $10,000 bail for violating a restraining order.
The woman, 30-ish and a member of the armed forces, is desperate. She has cobbled together $2,500 for the father and has just come from picking up the boyfriend’s paycheck for a little over $2,000.
Pacheco is gentle with her. She explains that the woman would need both another $5,000 for the father and some type of collateral to secure that $75,000 bond.
The woman explains she rents a condo in Aurora and has no other assets. Parents, a friend — does anyone own a home, have any assets, she is asked.
The woman buries her head in her hands. No, she says.
She agrees to post the $10,000 bail for the boyfriend.
“How am I going to tell them I can get only one of them out?” she says to no one in particular.
The woman fills out a mountain of paperwork on herself and the boyfriend. She hands Pacheco a check.
Now for the lesson in good bail and bad bail.
The father, Pacheco explained, faces a possession with intent charge, meaning he probably is facing some jail time and is, therefore, a prime candidate to skip. That is bad bail, and no way would she take the chance without collateral.
She did not ask for collateral on the boyfriend, she explains as we walk to the jail to bail him out, because he will probably get credit for the jail time he already has served.
Besides, “She’s in the military. The last thing she wants is for him to go missing and have me calling her commander. He’ll show because she’ll walk him into court.” That’s good bail.
In a different county, Pacheco says, they’d have simply released the boyfriend to free up jail space, made him promise to show for court.
If he didn’t, the courts would just issue a warrant. Whereas she would, she says, put a couple of bounty hunters on him and have him in back in jail in less than a week. “The courts with pretrial (release) have no one to go find him,” Pacheco said. “I now have 10,000 reasons to do it.”
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
