Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 8, 1993 TAG: 9308080173
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By STRAT DOUTHAT ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HARTFORD, CONN. LENGTH: Medium
Dave Shults is an old-fashioned bounty hunter who will chase you to the ends of the Earth - if the price is right.
"I've brought people back from Egypt, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, you name it," says Shults, a towering, 280-pound man with dyed blond hair and a diamond stud in his left earlobe. "And I can't even keep track of all the people I've hauled back from California."
A former professional wrestler who performed as "Dr. D," Shults became a bounty hunter after retiring from the ring.
But don't call him a bounty hunter. He thinks the term evokes Hollywood-style images of heartless gunslingers in 10-gallon hats.
"I prefer to be called a bail enforcement officer. It sounds more professional, and bounty hunters are not always viewed positively these days," says the 43-year-old native of Tennessee. "But, in fact, I am a bounty hunter, and I'm one of the best in the country. Ask any of the bail bondsmen I work for, and they'll tell you the same thing."
Hartford bail bondsman Mary Casey promptly calls Shults whenever one of her clients fails to show up for a court date.
"I can't say enough good about Dave," says Casey, who pays Shults 10 percent of the bond, plus expenses, to find "skips," as they're known in the trade.
Casey says bounty hunters are an obscure but integral part of the criminal justice system.
"They're crucial for a bail bondsman, and they save the state a lot of money, too," she says. "Under the law, we have authority to bring back somebody who skips out, while the police must get a governor's warrant and go through the long, expensive extradition process."
She says she has found that Shults not only is extremely reliable, but also is willing to accept a job, "at the drop of a hat."
"Although I was a little leery about doing it, I called Dave the night before the Rodney King verdict was expected, and asked him to go get a guy in Los Angeles," she says. "Dave didn't even hesitate, and he found the guy, too."
Shults says he got into the business six years ago, when a West Hartford private investigator asked him to give it a try. Since then, he says, he has joined the National Bail Enforcers Association and has caught more than 500 bail jumpers, some of whom tried to put up a fight before he brought them back to Connecticut to stand trial.
"I've been shot at a few times," says Shults, who has a license to carry a gun, and packs a hammerless .38-caliber revolver. "I've also had a few guys try to fight me, but that didn't last too long."
Though he insists he always tries to cooperate with local authorities, Shults was arrested in 1990 for kicking down the door at the home of a Hartford woman wanted on drug charges. He later filed a lawsuit, still pending, alleging false arrest.
"Under the law," he says, "I'm authorized to kick down your door, if you've skipped your bond and I know you're hiding behind that door. Besides, I notified the Hartford police of what I intended to do. They stood by and let me do it, then arrested me."
Shults says he enters a case after the police have failed to do their job, and the bail bondsman has nowhere else to turn.
"I usually get a photograph and a last-known address from the bondsman," he says. "Then, armed with a failure-to-appear warrant, I go out and start beating the bushes. Sometimes, if I'm not getting anywhere, I'll put out a reward poster. I've found that money talks on the street."
He said his job, while demanding and dangerous, also can be lucrative.
"I picked up a couple of guys who had skipped out on $250,000 bonds and made between $20,000 and $30,000 on each deal," he says. "I got $10,000 for bringing that guy back from Egypt."
But he says he lost money on a recent trip to Santo Domingo because a Connecticut prosecutor refused to seek an unlawful flight warrant.
"I went down there with another bounty hunter and we found the guy. But you need one of these UFAP warrants to bring somebody back from out of the country, and the prosecutor wouldn't get it for us."
Shults says the prosecutor told him he was content to have the man out of the country.
"He told me he'd have the guy arrested if he ever came back, but that ain't right," Shults says. "This guy was selling coke near a school in New Britain and we had him, but we had to turn him loose."
Shults also has no use for prosecutors who settle for part of the bond, rather than demand that the bondsman pay the entire amount, which adds pressure to apprehend the fugitive.
But, all in all, Shults says he loves the chase - as well as the freedom and adventure of his life as a bounty hunter.
"It's a dirty job, one that nobody wants to do," he says. "But I found out I was good at it. And on top of that, it pays the bills."
by CNB