After little more than an hour of deliberation, a Baltimore City jury acquitted three prominent bail bondsmen of corruption charges Wednesday.
“The state put forth a very strong case over 11 days, presenting many witnesses and compelling evidence that we believe pointed to egregious violations of the bail industry,” said Margaret Burns, spokeswoman for the Baltimore City State?s Attorney?s Office. “Yet, the jury deliberated quickly over almost two dozen counts of conspiracy and perjury, charging three co-defendants, and arrived at their verdict within less than 90 minutes of deliberations.”
But Dwight Pettit, the attorney for Milton Tillman Jr. ? who was tried along with his son, Milton Tillman III, and Bernard Dixon ? said he didn?t even need to call a single witness to defeat the state?s “weak” case.
“There was absolutely no evidence of a crime,” Pettit said. “This is the murder capital of the nation, and they wasted all this time and energy on a non-case.”
Prosecutors accused the men of posting the same property to cover bail for several criminal defendants, but Pettit said the few instances of “double posting” were attributable to “volume and mistake.”
“They write about 20,000 bonds a year,” Pettit said. “Even if we concede that four or five were double posted, it?s still less than 1 percent of the bonds. That?s not a criminal conspiracy.”
Prosecutors said they will not yield in their attempt to crack down on the city?s bail bond industry.
“While we respect the jury?s decision, the state will not be deterred,” Burns said.
