I was told that the cosigner wanted her picked and knew where she was. She missed her court appearance and had 2 active warrants. I called the cosigner who was her ex boyfriend and he told me that she was staying with a heroin junkie at a house in Gilroy. He went into great detail about her personal habits, when she started her day and where she hung out or scored her dope. He talked a lot and was very interested to see that she got picked up quick. He also made several comments about wanting to be there when she was arrested.

I visited the address that she was supposedly staying at, a small duplex on the west side of Gilroy. I setup for surveillance (turned on my DVD player) and proceeded to wait until someone either went in or came out. It’s generally not a good idea to just knock on the door until you are sure the defendant is there and you even more sure someone is actually going to answer. If you attempt to make contact too early you risk tipping the defendant off. Remember, the idea is to go unnoticed and get your man, not knock on everyone’s door and burn yourself. The ideal situation is when they come out. That’s easy pickings’.

While I’m waiting the cosigner is calling me about every 5 minutes. It’s starting to get on my nerves. He is so interested to know where I am and constantly reminds me that he would love to see me arrest her. This is never going to happen. Having someone who you don’t know and is associated with the case stand by while you make an arrest is not a good idea. It’s just one more person you have to be concerned about. It’s a big safety issue for me.

After waiting for 3 or 4 hours a man comes out and starts chatting with the neighbor. This guys looked the part, disheveled appearance, several missing teeth and tattoos covering his body. This guy is obviously some kind of addict, probably heroin or meth. Time to make contact.  I approach him and ask about the defendant to which he responds by telling he has not seen her in a few days and consents to a search of his residence.

Wow, this is disgusting. His house smells like rotten food and dirty socks. It’s all I can do to keep from gagging. There is trash piled 2 or 3 feet high in every room. I one of the bedrooms the garbage was literally up to the ceiling. Since I’m alone I instruct him to park his butt on the couch while I search. It was tough because I didn’t want to touch anything, no hepatitis for me thanks. Nothing, she isn’t here so I make some small talk and ask him to have her call me is she shows up. What a disappointment, he obviously knows where she is but was not about to tell me.

Now what? I call the cosigner and he tells me that the defendant’s sister is staying in a nearby tweeker hotel. According to him the sister has been staying there for months and the defendant will often stay for short periods of time. He goes on to describe the sisters car and tells me that she never leaves the hotel. After a short drive I arrive at the hotel and immediately see her car. I identify myself to the hotel “clerk” and he points me to her room. The hotel is one of those older strip mall style hotels where all the rooms are on a single story and the doors face the parking lot.

I knock on the door and am greeted by a man in his early 40′s who obviously spent some time in prison. His body is riddled with gang tattoos and his body language tells me that he’s very uncomfortable with my visit. When your dealing with career criminals it’s important to show them respect. Society has already cast these people aside and if you expect to get anywhere with them you have to bring yourself to their level. You have to speak their language and you can’t show any fear. Remember, I am alone and no one knows where I am so if I get into trouble I’m on my own.

In the room I can see several kids and a woman sitting on the bed. I look at her and ask her if she is Jane Doe and tell her which bail company I am from. She stands and I ask her to come outside. It turns out she is also on bail with us and thinks I am there to take her back to jail. Perfect, I play along. She starts telling me how she’s trying to raise the money for her last payment and doesn’t want to go back to jail. I lean on her just a bit and ask her if her sister is on bail with us as well. “Yes, why?” she says. “Do you know where she is”, I reply.

During my conversation with her the male is walking in and out of the hotel with his right hand tucked under his shirt. I can tell he’s nervous so I decide to strike up a conversation with him. I ask him which prisons he was in and he tells me “the bay”. The bay is Pelican Bay, it’s a supermax in northern California and this is were the high-risk inmates are housed. You can read more about Pelican Bay here is you want. He also tells me that was released from parole almost 10 years ago but he’s working on his 3rd strike so he doesn’t want any trouble.

Now she is starting to look puzzled and realizes that I am not really there for her and that I want her sister. After a long discussion I determine that she is being honest with me and doesn’t know where she is. Another, strike out. The only useful information she provided was that her mother would definitely hide her and probably knows her location. However, Jane Doe does not even know where her own mother lives.

Yea, I have to call the rattle mouth cosigner again. Odd, he knows where the mom lives and tells me that he would be a million dollars that the defendant is there. Normally I would believe him but he’s already told me twice “for sure she’s there…”. Something just doesn’t seem right and I’m starting to get suspicious but I just can’t put my finger on it.. He’s tells me her mom is living in an apartment on the south side of San Jose but doesn’t know the apartment number. However, he can take me there and show me where it is. Awesome, I get to meet this guy.

I get to the apartment complex and he’s waiting in a beat up old truck. He’s has a tall, thin frame with tattoos covering both his arms. His teeth show the years of drug abuse and judging from his language skills and appearance I can tell he’s been in prison.  My very first question is “who’s your parole officer”. He tells me and it’s someone that I know. I don’t bother to ask his why he was in prison and just assume it’s for drugs. During our walk to the apartment complex he asks me if I will call his PO and tell him that he’s helping me. That was a strange request but I just shrug it off.

We arrive at the apartment and I tell him to go back to his truck, “can I watch”, he says. “No, I need you to wait at your truck”. When he is out of site I knock on the door. I can see through the window that all the lights are out and the apartment is a mess. I wait for a minute or so but no one answers. Another strike out. I’m getting frustrated and think it’s time to give this case a rest for a day or so. I’m trying too hard and am burning through addresses to quickly. I’ve got some good information and am confident I can get her pretty quickly.

Back down stairs the cosigner is standing at the bottom, not at his truck where I told him to wait. We walk back to the cars and I tell him to take off and that I am going to wait here for a while in case she shows up. It’s really just an excuse to get rid of him. He talks too much and am starting to get a pretty clear picture of the real story. It’s seems that he and the defendant were intimate and he is pissed that she split on him. He’s angry at her and his obsessive desire to have her arrested concerns me. I’m now starting to feel like I’m working to help him fill some twisted desire to “get her back”. I don’t want this to cloud my thinking and distract me from treating this like any other case. I need him to leave so I can focus on doing my job without being influenced by him. It’s easy to become “attached” to someone and can cause disastrous consequences if you become emotionally involved.

While he is standing next to my car (I’m seated) my cell phone rings from a blocked number. I answer and the man on the other end tells me he’s from a local law enforcement office and asks if this is “(….bail bonds)”. Odd, this is my personal cell phone. I ask who he is and tells me his name and asks if I know “John Doe”. John Doe is the cosigner and he’s standing right next to me. So I tell him that this is a personal call and to go ahead and leave. He walks to his truck and starts driving off, I follow. I tell the person on the phone that John Doe is with me. His voice becomes rattled and he starts talking faster. “What’s going on”, I ask. “Where are you”, he inquires. I tell him and again ask him why he want’s to know.

He begins to tell me that the cosigner is sending threatening message to the defendant, telling her that he is going to kill her. He’s also telling his friends that he want’s to kill her. Now I understand why he’s so interested in witnessing the arrest of his ex-lover. While on the phone with the officer I pull up along side the cosigner and motion him to pull over. The officer asks me if I can hold John Doe but I tell him I have no legal authority to do so but will try to stall him until they can arrive.

We pull off the freeway and I tell the cosigner that the call was from the defendant and I convinced her to meet me. Now I have to make sure he waits and doesn’t become suspicious. We pull into a somewhat secluded area off the freeway and I start making small talk with him. He’s seated in his truck with the drivers door open and I am leaning on the door talking to him through the open window.  He’s fidgeting with with a large folding knife and drinking a beer. I decide to ask him why he was in prison.

He starts rambling about his crappy childhood, about how he was abused by his father and he would make him “stand in the corner for days at a time”. He tells me he was beat by his father and then tell me he was in prison because his father “died”. “Died?”, I ask. “Yea, I beat him and he died”, he says. Last I checked the word is murdered not died. “Isn’t that murder?” I ask. In this long drawn out explanation he tries to explain that it isn’t murder because his father didn’t die while he was beating him but that he died a few days later in the hospital. Me being the smart ass that I am ask him “would your dad have died if you didn’t beat him”. “No” he says.  “Then isn’t that murder?”. I just get a blank stare.

Meanwhile, I’m getting calls from the officer who wants to know our exact location. It’s tough to talk to him without alerting the cosigner. It’s now been about 20 minutes and I sense that he’s getting nervous so I take a chance and tell him “you can leave if you want”. He decides to stay. As I am leaning on the door I can hear motors accelerating and tires screeching. I know it’s them. I slowly lift up my shirt exposing my gun and remove it from my holster. I rest it behind my left leg so he doesn’t see it.

Just then the cars come to a stop and the cosigners eyes start to widen. He looks almost suprised. I turn to see 8 officers jump from unmarked cars. With weapons pointed us they start shouting at him to get out of the truck and lay on the ground, I casually take a few steps back while they arrest him. As he lay on the ground in cuffs he looks up at me with this puzzled look, like I had just licked all the red of his candy. I just shrug and walk away.

It seems that the officers were concerned for the safety of my defendants life. Was he planning to kill her? He did have a large knife with him. Was he using me to get to her? I’ll never know. It really doesn’t matter to me. I have enough information now to find my defendant and to be honest, I was getting tired of this guy calling me anyway.

I am going to let my defendant rest over the weekend and try again on Monday…