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If you ever had to bail yourself or a loved one out of jail, you know how expensive it can be. It can be a few thousand for the less serious crimes, but for more serious crimes and repeat offenders, bail can be tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars. For some cases, like big cases you have seen covered by the media, bail can be in the millions!
Here are some of those cases you may have heard a little about, but maybe not how expensive bail was:
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Bernard “Bernie” Madoff – $10 million
Madoff managed to pay his $10 million bail in 2008; he was arrested for operating a $50 billion Ponzi fraud scheme. A few months later though, his bail was revoked and he was declared a flight risk.
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Michael Sorodsky – $33 million
Accused of sexually molesting his sedated cancer patients, Sorodsky’s bail was set at $33 million.
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Christopher Williams – $100 million
Williams was accused of second-degree murder, carjacking, and aggravated robbery. His bail was set at $100 million in 2010 by a Tennessee judge.
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Robert Durst – $3 billion
Durst was accused of murdering his elderly neighbor in 2003 His bail was set at $3 billion – $1 billion for a bond jumping charge and $2 billion for tampering with evidence. The bail was eventually lowered in appeals court.
No matter how expensive bail can get, a bail bond can always drastically reduce the amount paid and relieve the defendant and their loved ones of some of the financial stress. Although the bail bond premium, 10% of the full bail amount, is not refunded like cash bail, it does come with a payment plan. For most people, this is the ideal method to posting bail.