Any prosecutors have any experience with defense requesting their client's bondsmen file an affidavit requesting release from bond so that the defendant can turn himself into the jail in order to begin serving a sentence that he is hoping to get a straight jail conviction agreement and credit for time served? (Note that there is no plea agreement in place for that, this is all on the defense attorney's volition).

A local bondsman asked me about this practice because he has been ordered to do it twice now and he doesn't feel comfortable with it....there are really no grounds that he could allege justify it. I think it's a creative way to make a plea happen faster--get your guy back in jail after 8 months and at the top of judge's docket. It doesn't seem too problematic that I can see, except that if the hundreds of people that are currently out on bail did this, our 50 bed county jail would be in trouble....not likely, though.

Thoughts?

Wouldn't the bondsman have to file an affidavit to surrender principal with the court, with a justifiable reason to go off the bond, before the court issued the alias capias warrant?

I have seen the practice when a defendant made bond on one case and then got arrested on another. The defendant wanted the original bond lifted so he could get jail credit for the original offense.

Yes, he would have to file an affidavit, and that was his issue....on what basis is he requesting release? He is supposed to show good cause, and then he feels like he's advocating at the behest of the defense when his job usually is to make sure defendants get to court and stay out of trouble. He feels like "good cause" is usually that the defendant messed up somehow. Getting into issues he doesn't want to involve himself in, I think. He also said there is a list of things that are good cause, I didn't see it in the CCP, but this is all new to me, so maybe it's case law?

He also mentioned that it has come up when a defendant was arrested on an FTA for one felony case, but was still okay on another pending misdemeanor. He didn't automatically release the other bond, thinking that the defendant would not want to post again on that case. The attorney requested the release in that case, but the judge did not approve it.

So if he can even talk the judge into it....is he violating any rules? Of course, I told him I don't really like the idea, but he's looking for a legal reason to use as a pat answer about why he cannot do it.