Trio arrested in Modesto bail bonds case in court

The owner and an agent of a Modesto bail bond business held clients against their will for hours to extort additional payments from them, a prosecutor charged in court Thursday.

A third defendant is another bail agent accused of conspiring with the other two to steal more than $250,000 from the county by submitting fraudulent bail bond claims, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in Stanislaus County Superior Court.

Defense attorney Frank Carson represented the three defendants Thursday. He told Judge Scott Steffen the defendants were eager to fight the charges "and they will be exonerated."

Authorities say Aleo John Pontillo, owner of AJ's Bail Bonds, and bail agent and office manager Janelle Marie Llorens were responsible for handcuffing their clients and threatening them for hours at the Yosemite Boulevard business from 2006 to 2008.

The scheme was for the sole purpose of extorting a bail bond "premium debt," or additional payment, state investigators said. The clients who could not make the payments were sent back to jail without cause, investigators said.

The other bail agent from the business, Mark David Davis, is suspected of conspiring with Pontillo and Llorens to commit grand theft.

The three defendants, all of Modesto, also are charged with one count of insurance fraud on suspicion of making false statements to the court or a public official for the purpose of preventing forfeiture of bail and having set aside a forfeiture.

The arrests were the result of an investigation launched by the state Department of Insurance.

"The arrests of these unscrupulous licensed bail agents should send a very clear message," said state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "The severity of their alleged crimes will simply not be tolerated."

According to state investigators, Pontillo, Llorens and Davis conspired from 2006 to 2010 to defraud the county of money owed or soon to be owed under the bail forfeiture process.

The investigators said the defendants submitted bonds to the county to falsely represent that a fugitive of the court had been apprehended.

Llorens and Davis are charged with perjury, allegedly to further the scheme.

Pontillo and Llorens also are charged with fraud in allegedly submitting a claim for payment from an insurance policy knowing the submitted information was false.

6 kidnappings suspected

The kidnapping conspiracy charges involve six victims, and the alleged incidents occurred from February 2006 to April 2008.

These are the allegations:

Walter Scott Osborne was taken from his home to the bail bond business, handcuffed to a weight bench, told he had to raise money or be taken to jail, and was held for six hours until he got the money.

Benjamin Campbell, after appearing in court, was taken from the courthouse to the bail bond business, handcuffed to a pole in the basement by Pontillo and held there in the dark for four to six hours.

Alicia Gutierrez and Estevan Montanez, after Montanez appeared in court, were taken to the bail bond business, told by employees that they had to come up with money or Montanez would go to jail. The two also were threatened with a stun gun. Gutierrez was told she could not leave the business even though she was not a client.

John Wettgen was taken from his home in handcuffs to the bail bond business and confronted by Pontillo, who demanded money because Wettgen was behind on payments on his bond. He required Wettgen to pay more than $400 before they would release him. He was not late making his payments.

Antonio Robles was taken in handcuffs to the bail bond business and paid more than $400 to gain his release after Pontillo demanded money.

"This criminal conspiracy abused those who had already paid a premium bond for their release from jail," Jones said. "To have them snatched from the street and extorted for additional funds or face the threat of return to jail is abhorrent."

At Thursday's hearing, Carson and Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Harris argued for almost an hour over the bail amounts for the defendants.

Harris told the judge the bail was appropriate for defendants charged with a conspiracy to defraud the government of at least $250,000. He said kidnapping charges reflect an ongoing pattern of behavior at the business.

"Locking someone in the basement in the dark for hours to try to extort money," Harris said in court. "That's a danger to the community."

Carson argued that the defendants had no prior criminal records and that they have ties to the community that prevent them from leaving the area.

"These aren't people who are desperados," Carson said. "This is unbelievable. Two million dollars bail for Mr. Pontillo?"

He argued that murder defendants have received smaller bail amounts, including a former Stanislaus County sheriff's detective awaiting trial.

Carson went on to argue that Pontillo has been cooperative with investigators, including Wednesday morning when authorities called saying his house was surrounded. Carson said Pontillo told investigators he was at work and waited for them there to be arrested.

"He's certainly not a flight risk," Carson told Steffen. "It's not fair."

Harris argued the charges are egregious, mainly because the alleged acts were made by bail bond employees entrusted by the state and the court to uphold the law.

"Instead, they made a mockery of bail here in Stanislaus County," Harris said.

Steffen reduced the bail amount for Pontillo from $2 million to $1.5 million and for Davis from $500,000 to $300,000. The judge ordered Llorens' bail to remain at $1 million. They all remained in custody Thursday evening.

The bail bond business was the focus of a federal investigation in 2008. An FBI spokesman said Thursday they assisted the Department of Insurance in this case.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or (209) 578-2394.

This story was originally published September 15, 2011 at 10:31 PM with the headline "Trio arrested in Modesto bail bonds case in court."