Bail bond company hits state with suit

Kim Smith

Friday, Feb. 25, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

A Las Vegas bail bond company whose license was suspended almost two years ago by the Nevada Division of Insurance has filed a federal libel and civil rights lawsuit against the state.

Joining All Star Bail Bonds in the lawsuit are owner Angela Mayfield and employees George Garcia and James Lyon.

The Division of Insurance suspended All Star's license and the licenses of Mayfield, Garcia, Lyon and Nathan Maldonado in June 1998 after allegations of excessive force surfaced.

The lawsuit, filed by Las Vegas attorney Matthew Callister, claims agents with the Division of Insurance conspired for months to shut down All Star Bail Bonds, going so far as to bribe or threaten clients and former employees of the company into giving false statements.

The company's license was reinstated within days, but the licenses of Mayfield and the agents were suspended for one year as part of a deal reached between the parties.

The lawsuit also alleges the suspension violated the plaintiffs' rights because it occurred before a required hearing.

"We obviously strongly deny all of the allegations and we plan to file a motion to dismiss the action," Deputy Attorney General Edward Reed said Wednesday.

According to the lawsuit, in 1994 Meri Jane Stern, an agent of the Department of Insurance, approved a list of local license bail bondsmen that was later posted in all of the jails in Clark County. When Stern was told by a former owner of All Star that there were errors on the list, "Stern reacted with extreme hostility" and from that point on "displayed contempt for All Star" and its owners.

The suit says Stern and Agent Ben Gillard met with several of All Star's competitors between March and June 1998 "to find a way to put All Star out of business." After the suspensions were ordered, the two then told the company's competitors that Mayfield and other agents of All Star were going to be arrested.

One month before the licenses were suspended, the lawsuit alleges, Gillard and Stern "raided in a Gestapo-like fashion" the three offices of All Star and performed a three-day audit, the results of which have never been divulged.

Callister said even if the excessive force allegations are true, they did not warrant a suspension that placed 50 employees temporarily out of work.

"For reasons unknown to me, the state Department of Insurance engaged in a jihad or a holy war of sorts to drive the pre-eminent bail bond company in the state out of business," Callister said.

Although no hearings have been set in the lawsuit, a District Court judge is scheduled to decide in March if the state violated any laws.