Bail Bond Agent With Ties to Mike Carona Goes to Jail

Michael Fidelis, a bail bond agent and owner of Fastrack Bail Bonds in Fullerton, first brought this story to my attention via his blog at http://www.callforbail.com/blog/.  The character at the center of the story is Ronald Lee Brockway, a bail bond agent with Respect Bail Bonds.  Brockway gave up the goods on Joseph Cavallo.  You might remember Cavallo from the Gregory Haidl rape case and that then-sheriff Mike Carona helped to cover it up.  The rape case was the beginning of the end of Carona, now a federally convicted felon serving time in Colorado for witness tampering.  The witness was Don Haidl, Greg Haidl's father.  Don Haidl was also the Assistant Sheriff, Carona's goto guy.  Carona, Cavallo, Haidl, and Brockway all had "there thing".  Anyway, Michael Fidelis tells us about Brockman through the eyes of a bail bonds agent.   

In a recent blog post called, “Bail Bonds – You Get What You Pay For”, we mentioned the serious problems the commercial bail industry is facing due to unethical and scrupulous bail bond agents. Just yesterday, the Superior Court of Orange County sentenced Ronald Lee Brockway of Respect Bail Bonds in an illegal referral scheme. Mr. Brockway was sentenced to a year in jail, fines, probation, and a six month suspension of his bail license.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new to Mr. Brockway. He avoided prosecution in 2005 in exchange for testimony before the Orange County Grand Jury, which helped put away Joseph Cavallo, an attorney. In his testimony, he claims to have received cash monies from the criminal defense attorney in exchange for referring clients.

California Code of Regulations- Title 10, Article 2, defines bail transactions as they pertain to a licensed bail agent in the State of California. Section 2071 prohibits directly or indirectly referring / suggesting an attorney to an arrestee for representation. Furthermore, section 2074 prohibits solicitation for bail to any person on the premises of any jail, prison, court, detention facility, and connections to administrations of justice.

Mr. Brockway didn’t take the previous “run in with the law” as a warning, but continued his illegal bail bond operations. In fact, he posted his own $50,000.00 bail bond back in July of 2010! It is my assumption that he had a total disregard for the law, which finally led to his arrest and conviction. The truth of the matter is, he will serve only part of his sentence just in time for the reinstatement of his bail agent’s license, an ill decision made in part of the California Insurance Commissioner.