BRISTOL, Va. – Police say three days were spent tracking the trio accused of masquerading as drug agents to arrest a woman who skipped a court hearing.
The trio nabbed the wrong woman on Oct. 9, police report, and strip-searched and sexually assaulted her before handing her to a bail bondsman, who in turn hauled her to jail.
The case might have been solved sooner, police say, had the bail bondsman cooperated with investigators. J.C. Mullins Jr., of Abingdon Bail Bonds, was charged Monday with misdemeanor obstruction of justice after police said he claimed not to know anyone involved.
Court records show that Mullins bonded one of those accused of posing as a false agent out of jail last December, however.
“He withheld information from us that could have been helpful,” Bristol Virginia Police Detective Sgt. Steven Crawford said. “We spent a couple of days trying to identify these people.”
Officers eventually arrested Donna Fitzwater, of Bristol, Tenn., Dwayne Peters, of Greeneville, Tenn., and Stacy Herndon, of Lebanon, Va. They are each charged with abduction, robbery, impersonating a law enforcement officer, conspiracy and sexual battery.
“Eventually, it just came out, during questioning, that Mullins had bonded one of them before,” Crawford said.
Russell County General District Court records show that Mullins bonded Herndon out of jail Dec. 30 over charges of driving under the influence, driving with a revoked or suspended license and possession of a firearm by a felon.
A fourth person – Doug Roller, of Bristol, Va. – has been charged as an accessory in the false arrest, Crawford said, based on an accusation that Roller lured the woman at 2 a.m. to Mumpower Park in Bristol, Va., so the trio could corral her.
With the woman at the park, Crawford said Fitzwater, Peters and Herndon leapt into sight with badges in hand and screamed that they were drug task force agents.
The woman was pulled from her car, police report, handcuffed in the park, stripped and then subjected to a full-body cavity search for hidden drugs.
Crawford said the group hoped to receive a reward from Mullins after he distributed a photo of a woman he’d bonded out of jail and who had skipped a court appearance.
Mullins declined to comment Wednesday.
Minutes later, the woman was handed to Mullins in the Bristol Virginia Jail parking lot, police say. Jailers quickly discerned her true identity.
Mullins was the subject of several recent Bristol Herald Courier stories that detailed how his son, former Abingdon-based magistrate John C. “Tiny” Mullins III, falsified bail bond documents to hide questionable dealings between the two.
The father is now under investigation by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, which licenses bail bondsmen and women.
The son, Tiny Mullins, was fired from the magistrate’s office and is under investigation by a special prosecutor.
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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