It's No Country for Old Bail Bondsmen. Just ask Jerry Cox

A A A Comments (1) By Keegan Hamilton Wednesday, Dec 10 2008

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Though Cox is currently banned from writing bail bonds in St. Louis, he can still do business in other parts of the state.

According to Matt Barton, director of licensing for the Department of Insurance, his agency is powerless to take action unless Cox is convicted of a crime. Barton adds that even if Cox were found guilty, he might still retain his general bail bond agent's license.

Jennifer Silverberg

Bail bondsman Jerry Cox in his St. Charles office. Police say Cox ordered a team of bounty hunters to kidnap a couple who owed him money.

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"It's not a given that he'd lose his license if he is convicted," Barton says. "It's something we're taking a look at, but right now we don't have any statutory authority."

Cox is a well-known figure in the Missouri bail bond industry, and his case has drawn scrutiny from other bondsmen.

"We're concerned about how negative publicity might affect the industry," says Angela Park, a bail bond agent in Rolla. "There are a lot of people that are concerned about that, that as an industry we'll all be perceived in a bad light because of actions of these individuals."

In 2005, Cox was the target of a murder-for-hire plot, orchestrated by a rival bail bondsman named Virgil "Lee" Jackson. (Click here for Keegan Hamilton's feature story "Birds of a Feather," April 15, 2008.) He is also a long-time member of the Missouri Professional Bail Bonding Association, a group of bondsmen currently lobbying the state legislature for self-regulation of their industry.

Bart Cooper, president of the Associated Bail Agents of Missouri, a group formed to oppose Cox's association, says he hopes Cox's case will lead to tighter regulation of the trade.

"When I read this kind of thing, I'm not surprised. The laws in our industry are pretty loose. It underscores the need for legislative reform," Cooper says. "But the sheer irony of this is that Lee Jackson tried to do in Jerry Cox. He didn't succeed, but Jerry Cox, it appears, may have done himself in."

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