Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Hi, About 6 months ago I had met someone online and started a relationship with this person only to find out later that nothing they said has ever been true. From the beginning they had told me they had cancer, there ex was in jail for trying to murder him for insurance money, he was taking care of his mother who was dying from a tumor and the list goes on. Anyway ow of this has been true along with everything else he has said. I've since then fallen in love with a con artist and now dealing with the fact I've been coned. Anyway he recently stole his moms car , pushed her trying to do so and also has stolen property from me. Again he has lied to me about all of this and I actually bonded him out of jail. the bond was 30,000. His bail was 3,000. We both agreed to pay 300.00 ( which I paid and he agreed to help) with another 300.00 due a week ago. After asking him so many questions about his life and him relizing that I know ive been coned, he has left and now is living on the streets. He has mentioned to me that he will not pay anything more and the bondf agecy has already started hounding me for missed payments. I have told them the situation about him being a conartist and the fact I would have never bailed him out if it were not for his lies. They do not seem to care. Since I have bailed him out he has shown up to his court appearance but has his third and final court date on the Dec 12. He is now living in a homeless camp drinking and doing drugs on a daily basics. He is also committing credit card fraud and who knows what else while out on my dime. He has told me he is doing this because he has no intention to pay it and that he know they will go after me first since he has no job and is homeless. I have made attempot after attempt trying to tell the bonds company and they do nothing but say im responsible to pay this. I feel if he cant pay it they need to put him back in jail. Can they do this? He did show up to his first court appearance and most likely show up for the last while having a great time drinking and using drugs while sticking me with all debt. I have tried telling the bonds people for the last month what he said his plans to stick me with the bail. I have even brought him in to the bails people tell them he wasn't going to pay with him physically by my side, and he took off the moment I turned my head. Still they were not alarmed and only told me I was responsible. At this time I want this con-artist to be back and jail and pay for his crimes. not live on bail that i will be stuck with. Whether or not he can be charged for lying to me from the beginning, I dont know if I can do anything or if it could be perused. I can say that he has done this for years I have discovered and he seems to keep getting away with it.


Asked on 11/16/19, 11:52 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Terry A. Nelson Nelson & Lawless

Other than a 'sorry, too bad' response, I will explain your actual situation.

Your are the naive victim of a typical common 'relationship' predator, as you are looking for love in all the wrong places. You will have to exercise much more care in choosing your 'friends' in future, in person face to face, and certainly not known criminals currently facing prison wanting to bail them out. You could try to report this to police to see if they will treat it as a crime. Other than that, you are not likely to ever recover any money from him - you knew at the time he has none, he is apparently a grifter, living off the gullibility of others, and the victims of his other crimes?. If this bad actor 'skips' from the criminal charges and misses any court hearing, an arrest warrant would be issued and his bail would be forfeited; the bondsman would lose his posted money bond, and; the bondsman would then be entitled to sue you to collect the entire amount of their bond from you, if they can't collect from him, since you signed a 'joint' responsibility contract to pay them. They already can sue and collect from you the 'missing payments'. They do not care you were his victim, that is not a legal defense to their claim against you; they/we/the courts see this all the time with people believing without checking everything they are told online by romantic strangers. Hopefully for your sake, this bad actor will not 'skip' and cause the bond to be forfeited. If he does, you might consult with a bankruptcy attorney if you can't afford to repay the bondsman.

The only other possible, but unlikely, scenario is for the bondsman to treat the missing payments as a default, then pick up the defendant and return him to court and request the court to release and return their bond. Talk to them.

Read more
Answered on 11/17/19, 1:25 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Criminal Law questions and answers in California