Four bail bond employees cited for assault, false imprisonment
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa Nov 22 2017 Four Council Bluffs bail bond employees were cited for assault and false imprisonment after the man they were picking up told Omaha police he was assaulted.
The alleged altercation occurred Monday morning at the Quick Trip at NW Radial Highway and Hamilton Street.
Omaha police took the report at the Pottawattamie County Jail where 21-year-old Phillip Davis was taken after bail bond employees with Gallagher Bail Bond picked him up.
Gallagher Bail Bond owner Tom Gallagher tells 6 News Davis used his services for a driving under suspension charge he received earlier. However, since Davis did not appear in court, he broke his contract with the company.
“They’ll issue a warrant, and then they’ll issue bond forfeiture proceedings. I can go pick up the person right then and there,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher reached out to Davis multiple times to tell him to turn himself in, but when it didn’t appear he really would, Gallagher’s men followed him to the Quick Trip.
“He was the aggressor, and so they took him down to the ground,” Gallagher said.
Omaha police were then called to the Pottawattamie County Jail to take the incident report. The four bail bond employees were cited for assault and false imprisonment after police determined Davis was “assaulted by hands, fists and knees.”
“We’ve never had problems in many places except Omaha,” Gallagher said.
Bail bond companies are not allowed in Omaha, but federal law allows employees to cross state lines to pick up fugitives. However, Gallagher tells 6 News he almost always has a problem when his men pick up criminals in the city.
“Even the cops last night that come over from Omaha said, ‘Yeah, I wish we had bail bondsmen over there, but this is the law over there. So don’t come over and do this anymore,’” Gallagher said.
Davis’s family, though, doesn’t see the issue as so black and white. She wouldn’t meet with 6 News for an interview, but said Gallagher’s company repeatedly harassed her family.
“We’ve got all kinds of texts from him and his mom both. Some are, ‘Yeah, I’m going to turn myself in. Some were the finger, and you’re not going to see a dime from me or my mom. You’re never going to find me or catch me,’” Gallagher said.
Davis is currently sitting at the Pottawattamie County Jail on a $20,000 bond for driving under suspension, failure to appear and criminal mischief.
Gallagher said bail bond companies are beneficial to the court system, but because Omaha doesn’t recognize their work, it creates a sort of safe haven for criminals.
”It works better for the courts. I’m just a guy out doing a service. I’m doing a service for my community. I’m doing a service for the court. They could pay me a third of the money they’d pay me, and I’d still do it,” Gallagher said.
6 News also contacted Davis at jail, but he declined to speak with our cameras.
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