Abingdon Magistrate Fakes Documents to Steer Bail Bonds to Father

ABINGDON, Va. – An Abingdon-based magistrate falsified court documents last year to hide questionable dealings with his father, a local bail bondsman, a Bristol Herald Courier investigation has found.

John C. “Tiny” Mullins III used a fellow magistrate’s electronic computer signature to sign three separate bail bond forms to release three defendants from jail while they were awaiting a court hearing. Each time, the freed defendant had hired the magistrate’s father, bondsman J.C. Mullins Jr., of Abingdon Bail Bonds.

The son falsified documents to skirt judicial warnings that he was not to set the price of bail for any of his father’s clients, thereby avoiding the appearance of or actual conflict of interest, according to another magistrate and documents obtained by the Herald Courier.

The Virginia Supreme Court, which oversees the state magistrate system through its Office of the Executive Secretary, fired Tiny Mullins on May 21, nearly three weeks after first fielding Herald Courier inquiries for documents related to the scheme.

Both Tiny Mullins and his father, J.C., refused to comment for this story.

The Virginia State Police is now investigating the local magistrate’s office, but officials would not say if the focus is on the father-son dealings.

Forced to resign the day Tiny Mullins was fired was fellow Magistrate Norman Dayton Harris, who admits to sharing his computer pass code with his co-worker on April 18, 2008, for the express purpose of concealing the family ties on bail bond release forms.

“All I did was give the man my password with the understanding he was to use it one time,” Harris told the Herald Courier during an interview at his home. “I was going to call [the chief magistrate] and tell him what was done the next day.”

The Herald Courier pieced together the scheme through interviews, by reviewing 140 court case files, and by creating a timeline based on employee timesheets obtained from the magistrate’s office through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

Most of the 2008 timesheets requested by the newspaper had been destroyed months before the investigation began, despite a state law that requires the documents be kept for at least three years for annual state audits. Destroying them any sooner is a misdemeanor.

Former Chief Magistrate George VanHoy, who supervised the Abingdon headquarters and its satellite offices in Marion and Bristol for 31 years until he retired in January, said he destroyed the office copies because they no longer were needed and to clean house for his replacement.

“Everything that was left there that wasn’t important was destroyed,” VanHoy said. The new chief magistrate “wouldn’t have thought the timesheets are any more important than I do.”

State law also requires that individual magistrates keep their timesheets for three years. Tiny Mullins destroyed the personal copies of his 2008 timesheets, a
Virginia Supreme Court spokeswoman said. Harris, on the other hand, saved his personal records.

POWER

Like all magistrates, Tiny Mullins wielded tremendous power. The role is best described as a quasi-judge – a judicial officer with the authority to jail a person, temporarily commit him for evaluation and empower police to search homes for criminal evidence.

Most important, no one is jailed, or freed from jail, without a magistrate’s OK. Because many defendants can’t pay for bail, they hire a bondsman to pledge cash or property to back the defendant’s promise to appear at all court cases. In return, the defendant pays the bondsman a percentage of the bail.

With each bail price he set, Tiny Mullins also would determine how much cash the defendant would pay the bondsman, simply because the fees are based on the amount of bail.

If a defendant hired bondsman J.C. Mullins to bail him out of jail when Tiny Mullins was working, then the son effectively decided his father’s fee. Only a sitting judge could change the amount.

“It probably wasn’t the most ethical thing … but it wasn’t illegal whatsoever,” VanHoy, the former chief magistrate, told the Herald Courier.

VanHoy’s chief magistrate seat remains empty. Regional magistrate supervisor Bill Walman is filling the role as interim director. He referred all questions to a Virginia Supreme Court spokeswoman.

Father J.C. Mullins filed with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services for his bail bondsman license in December 2007 and covers the Southwest Virginia region. Supreme Court records show he bonded 153 defendants out of jail last year.

Supreme Court documents show that the thorny ethics question of the father-son dealings eventually caught the attention of local Chief Circuit Court Judge C.
Randall Lowe and Chief General District Court Judge Sage B. Johnson, who oversaw local magistrates until July 1, 2008, when the Virginia Supreme Court took over the responsibility statewide.

Lowe, who appointed area magistrates, did not return calls for this story.

Johnson, then the local magistrate supervisor, remembered the issue.

“At that point, there was not a specific case in which a conflict of interest happened, but it was something we wanted to address before it came up,” Johnson said.

VanHoy and Tiny Mullins met privately with the judges and were forced to agree in writing that the son could release the father’s clients as long as another magistrate set the bail.

Tiny Mullins signed a letter on March 30, 2008, stating: “We have come to a agreement that while I am working as a Magistrate I will not do any bail process for my father and will recluse [sic] myself from any proceeding involving him or any of his business as a bail bondsman. Furthermore, my father has agreed that he will not post bail for any defendant that I have had a bail hearing for.”

It would not be the last time VanHoy confronted Tiny Mullins over the ethical dilemma.

Tiny Mullins broke his promise three weeks after signing the pledge.

RECORDS

Harris’ electronic signature appears on two bond sheets – called recognizance forms – that were filed the night of April 18, 2008, and on one filed in the early morning hours the next day. Yet, his timesheets show he did not work that night or the following morning.

Court documents show that Tiny Mullins manned the magistrate’s office then.

Magistrates have their signatures scanned into the computer system when they first get the job. The electronic signature is usually used when a magistrate holds a video-conference bond hearing for a defendant in a distant jail. For example, a magistrate working at the Abingdon jail would hold a video conference for a defendant held at the Bristol jail.

In face-to-face bond hearings, the magistrate signs the bond sheet in red ink. The copies printed later and handed to the defendant, prosecutors, jailers and others would include only the electronic signature, however.  The original, hand-signed bond sheet is destined for the courthouse.

Access to Harris’ electronic signature could have been gained that night only if Tiny Mullins signed into the computer with Harris’ confidential password. Also, a personal password must be typed into the system each time a document is printed; otherwise, the printer will not work.

Magistrates receive a personal password when they begin the job and are supposed to keep it a secret, said state Magistrate Coordinator Bobby Lewis.

“The training that we give them is to indicate that they should not share their individual passwords,” Lewis said.

Tiny Mullins’ own signature is the clue that places him at the magistrates’ office that night. He penned his own name to the jail release orders that accompany each bond sheet that bear Harris’ electronic signature.

More clues were left on the first two release orders that Tiny Mullins signed. Stamped in block print on each document is the name of the magistrate matching the personal password used to log into the computer.

Tiny Mullins signed his name in red ink on two release orders that bear Harris’ name in block letters. This means that Harris’ password was used to print both release orders.

Dates and time stamps on all the documents show the release orders were printed immediately after the bond sheets.

JUDGMENT

Harris said he shared his computer password over the telephone because he believed it would help Tiny Mullins, who had been barred from conducting business with his father. It also would further along a defendant’s right to bail, Harris said, so that more time wouldn’t be spent behind bars searching for another bondsman.

“They had been trying to bail this guy out for hours,” Harris said.

Tiny Mullins called back 10 minutes later with news that he and his father had decided against the scheme, Harris said, and that they would find another way to release the defendant.

“Once he [Tiny Mullins] told me they weren’t going to do it, then my part in all this was over, right then and there,” Harris said.

Harris said he learned otherwise when he returned to work the following evening. Three unfamiliar bond sheets were in his office mailbox. Although all were original forms, the lines reserved for a magistrate to pen his authorization were empty.

Harris said he lost the originals without ever having signed them. Only copies bearing Harris’ electronic signature are filed in the Washington County Courthouse.

Instead of signing the originals, Harris said he immediately reported his conversation with Tiny Mullins to their boss, VanHoy.

The result: VanHoy admonished both Tiny Mullins and Harris not to do it again.

“A slap on the wrist. That pretty much boils it down to what it was … but we were both punished,” Harris said.

News of the incident never traveled up the chain of command, however.

“No one ever brought it to me,” said former local magistrate supervisor Judge Johnson. “It should have been brought to my attention.”

VanHoy’s version of events differs slightly from Harris’. VanHoy said he was told only that Tiny Mullins and Harris considered falsifying documents, but did not follow through with the plan.

“I gave them a warning … that’s what I thought was required at the time,” VanHoy said, adding that he considered the father-son scheme closed with the warning.

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TIMELINE
April 18, 2008
Note: Employee timesheets show that Norman Dayton Harris did not work on this day.
Bond A
* 6:32 p.m. – Magistrate Gregory A. Baumgarner signs Commitment Order for defendant Billie Martin Thomas. Bond is set at $2,500.
* 7:11 p.m. – Bond Recognizance sheet is printed bearing the electronic signature of Magistrate Norman D. Harris. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Harris’ computer password.
* 7:14 p.m. – Jail Release Order is printed and is signed by Magistrate John C. “Tiny” Mullins III. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Harris’ computer password.
Bond B
* 7:10 p.m. – Magistrate Gregory A. Baumgarner signs Commitment Order for defendant Travis L. Greer. Bond is set at $2,500.
* 7:35 p.m. – Bond Recognizance sheet is printed bearing Harris’ electronic signature. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Harris’ computer password.
* 7:36 p.m. – Jail Release Order is printed and is signed by Tiny Mullins. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Harris’ computer password.

April 19, 2008
Note: Employee timesheets show that Harris reported to work at 2 p.m.
Bond C
* 1:28 a.m. – Tiny Mullins signs Commitment Order for Michael Luke Lowe. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Harris’ computer password. Bond is set at $1,000.
* 1:56 a.m. – Bond Recognizance sheet is printed bearing Harris’ electronic signature. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Harris’ computer password.
* 2:00 a.m. – Jail Release Order is printed and is signed by Tiny Mullins. The name stamp below the signature shows the document was printed with Mullins’ computer password.

HOW WE GOT THE STORY
The Bristol Herald Courier spent two months investigating multiple tips that Abingdon-based magistrate John C. “Tiny” Mullins III falsified documents last year for his father, bail bondsman J.C. Mullins Jr.

The investigation began with a public records request to the Virginia Supreme Court for the bondsman’s 2008 client list. The records request also sought last year’s employee timesheets for Tiny Mullins and fellow magistrate Norman Dayton Harris, the man sources said supplied the personal password for his electronic computer signature.

The father’s client list included 140 defendant names, bond dates and case numbers to cull through. This information directed the Herald Courier to the bond recognizance sheets filed in courthouses in Bristol and the counties of Washington, Smyth and Russell.

Each bond sheet lists the magistrate on duty and the time and date that bond was set. With this information, unearthing the falsified bond sheets boiled down to cross-referencing Harris’ electronic signature with the days listed off on his timesheets.

Only Harris’ timesheets for January through September were available. Magistrates statewide did away with handwritten timesheets and graduated to a computerized system called eMagistrate that tracks weekly work hours. A computer programmer is needed to extract the precise hours that a magistrate begins and ends each work day.

This limited the Herald Courier’s review to just the first nine months of 2008.

Timesheets for Tiny Mullins were requested to place him inside the magistrate’s office when Harris’ electronic signature was used. However, both Tiny Mullins’ personal timesheets and the office copies had been destroyed.

Still, Tiny Mullins placed himself in the magistrate’s office by signing his name to the jail release forms filed with the bond sheets.

Interviews with Harris, his former boss, and others explained the inner workings of the magistrate’s office.