Legislator introduces new bill against bail agents as battle rages

SACRAMENTO — Sen. Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, has escalated his war with the bail industry by introducing legislation that could lead to greater regulation of companies that insure bail bonds providers.

Meanwhile, a new website and Facebook page are soliciting sexual harassment complaints against state legislators. These efforts follow a Twitter campaign among bail agents last month advertising a “Hertzberg Sex Abuse” hotline.

Also this week, a federal judge overseeing a challenge to San Francisco’s bail system issued an order ensuring the long-running case will continue.

Hertzberg and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda, announced SB 898 on Tuesday. It calls on the California Department of Insurance to study the insurers that underwrite bail bonds companies. The pair say such an analysis will show the industry is making inflated profits off of the backs of defendants, who have no choice but to pay.

“Our hope with this bill is that the Department of Insurance is able to find out if our suspicions are true, that the bail industry is using contracts with terms and conditions that don’t line up with California’s consumer protection laws,” Hertzberg said in an emailed statement.

The bill asks the department to examine “the risk assumed by the insurer and the rates charged for coverage” and compare them with other areas of insurance, such as automobile coverage.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones — a candidate for attorney general — did not reply to requests for comment. A spokesperson for his office pointed to a hearing Jones held a year ago seeking public input on the bail system.

Jones told the audience that his department has regulated bail bonds companies since the passage of the Bail Bond Regulatory Act in 1937. The department licenses bail agents and investigates wrongdoing.

“Over the past few years, there’s been a significant increase in the number of complaints to my department about bail agents, roughly a tripling in numbers since 2012,” Jones said. “Unfortunately, the Department of Insurance does not have a dedicated funding stream to provide for comprehensive oversight of bail agents.”

In 2016, Jones sponsored AB 2449. This would have funded greater oversight, paid for by increasing agents’ licensing fees and through a $10 surcharge on each bail transaction. The bill died in the Assembly Insurance Committee without a vote.

Part of the goal of SB 898 is to show the need for greater regulation. In their news release, Hertzberg and Bonta cite studies from UCLA and the Judicial Council they say show bail bonds companies routinely failed to provide copies of agreements to customers, and that many of these contracts contain clauses “that violate common notions of fairness and justice.”

Hertzberg is also carrying SB 10, which would phase out cash bail in California.

The bill has sparked a major lobbying effort by bail agents. That campaign appeared to spill out into social media last month after former Assemblywoman Linda Halderman went public with claims that Hertzberg subjected her to inappropriate hugs in 2011.

“There are finally consequences for guys who do this,” Halderman told the Daily Journal last month. “What Bob did to me, there is no way I was the only one.”

Shortly after the allegations surfaced, the Twitter account of Los Angeles-based Lipstick Bail Bonds posted a Sacramento-area number to call with allegations against Hertzberg.

A call to the number was returned by Tony Choquette, a Los Angeles-based private eye and semi-retired bail bondsman. He said he had been contracted by a group of people to investigate complaints coming into the line. Choquette said he had spoken to several women, including Halderman.

Halderman said she never called the hotline and didn’t even know about it. She decided to come forward after reading media reports about sexual harassment in Sacramento, she said.

A “Sacramento Victims Hotline” web site and Facebook page appeared soon after the reports. The website URL was registered anonymously on Dec. 19, according to the online Whois database.

The Facebook page features a video showing photos of Hertzberg with three Democratic legislators facing harassment or assault allegations, two of whom have resigned.

In an emailed statement, Hertzberg said he believed the bail industry was behind the pages.

“In recent weeks we have seen some in the bail industry try to weaponize the #wesaidenough movement in an effort to kill bail reform. They have put up websites and hotlines fronting as victims’ groups,” he said.

Supporters of #WeSaidEnough said they do not want their efforts against sexual harassment overshadowed by an unrelated political fight.

“It’s unfortunate when it’s mixed up with any sort of political vendetta,” said attorney Micha Star Liberty, owner of Liberty Law in Oakland, who represents a woman in a wrongful termination lawsuit.