By Jeff Lehr
news@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. —
A Carthage bondswoman has been accused of trying to revoke a defendant’s bail without a judge’s order and handcuffing the man to a bannister in her home overnight.
Jeanie M. Chartier, 57, of Adams Bail Bonds, told Reynaldo D. Delarosa, 32, of Joplin, that she was revoking his bond Dec. 28 and took him to the Jasper County Jail in Carthage.
According to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, the jail staff declined to incarcerate Delarosa because Chartier lacked a judge’s order. She is accused of then taking Delarosa home with her and handcuffing him to the bannister of some stairs, where he remained until friends brought her bail money the next morning.
Chartier was arrested Friday by sheriff’s deputies and charged with the misdemeanor offense of false imprisonment. Reached by telephone on Wednesday, she declined to discuss the matter.
“They’re false accusations,” she said. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
Delarosa referred all questions to his attorney, Steven Hays, who said bail bond agents, like Chartier, do not have authority to independently revoke a defendant’s bond.
“She has to have a judge sign the revocation, or there must be new warrants issued,” Hays said.
He said his client was illegally detained by Chartier for about 17 hours, including 15 hours handcuffed to the bannister.
Hays said Delarosa became involved with Chartier after the state revoked his driver’s license for falling behind on child support payments, and he began incurring traffic tickets for driving without a license and other violations. Chartier agreed to start bonding him if he would make payments to her, Hays said.
Court records show that Delarosa picked up more serious misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana in September, and another marijuana offense in November on top of various traffic tickets.
Hays said his client apparently missed a couple of payments to Chartier in December, and she asked him to meet her at a Walgreens store about 6 p.m. on Dec. 28 to try to work something out. Delarosa went there, and she informed him that she was revoking his bond, placed him in handcuffs, took him to the jail and tried to get him booked in without a judge’s order, Hays said.
When the jail refused to accept her prisoner, she took Delarosa home with her, Hays said. Hays said his client was handcuffed to the bannister from about 8 p.m. to 11 a.m. the next day.
“He’s got pictures of it,” Hays said. “She left him a cellphone, and he took pictures of it.”
He said Delarosa called some friends and got them to raise enough bail money to get him released by Chartier. Hays said he did not know how much the friends gave Chartier to get him released, but he believes it was at least $450.
Hays said Delarosa had county bonds totaling $7,500 that Adams Bail Bonds picked up in recent months, as well as an undetermined amount of city bonds. He said his client paid Chartier at least $1,600 for his 10 percent of the bonds.
“We’re doing an audit of all that,” Hays said. “It appears he may have overpaid her.”
The attorney said the bail bonds agency seized his client’s truck as collateral before Chartier detained him. Associate Circuit Judge Joe Schoeberl ordered the vehicle returned to Delarosa on Tuesday when the matter was brought to the judge’s attention by Hays and the Jasper County prosecutor’s office.
