Appeals court: Bond isn’t lost if feds take defendant first

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — North Carolina’s intermediate-level appeals court says a bail bond company shouldn’t lose $100,000 when a defendant failed to appear in court because federal immigration agents took him away first.

Tuesday’s unanimous opinion at the Court of Appeals favored the Raleigh company that had posted the $100,000 bond in April 2018.

By the next day, immigration agents took him away and ultimately deported him to Mexico.

A trial judge later ruled the company had to forefit the bond because the defendant was absent on a court date. But the appeals court says the forfeiture never should have been initiated because he was never actually released.