Nebbia Holds

Whether the state allows you to post bail or keeps you detained until trial is mostly beyond your control, although legal remedies are available if the state keeps you detained unfairly when you have not been convicted of a crime.  Some people want to abolish cash bail entirely, while the Bill of Rights only prohibits excessive bail, without defining what counts as excessive.  One thing is certain, though.  If the court orders you to post a certain amount of bail money in exchange for your freedom while your case is pending, and you post the bail money, the state must let you go.  Wouldn’t nitpicking about the source of your bail money sound like a Kafkaesque scenario where the jailer insists that you pay two thirds of your bail money in $2 bills and the other third in Bitcoin?  Most of the time, the court cannot delay your release after you post bail, unless the court orders a Nebbia hold.  If you are being detained unfairly, with or without a Nebbia hold, contact a West Palm Beach criminal defense lawyer.

Serious Question: Can You Use Stolen Money to Post Bail?

It sounds like the opening scene of a novel written by a Floridian whose day job is journalism.  One evening in August 2023, Lenda Rodriguez Alfonso got arrested because she let someone park two cars that did not belong to her in front of her house in Tamiami.  Rodriguez Alfonso exercised her right to remain silent and refused to tell police the names of the people who had parked the cars on her property.  As a result, she was charged with conspiracy to commit auto theft.  Rodriguez Alfonso, then 27, posted bail, and the story should go on to say that she went home and called a criminal defense lawyer, but that is not what happened next.  Instead, the court ordered a Nebbia hold to keep her detained until it verified the source of her bail money.

When In Doubt, Go With a Bail Bond Company

When you post bail, the prosecution has the right to request a Nebbia hold, which gives the state the right to keep you detained while it investigates to find out whether you obtained your bail money illegally.  If you are worried that this might happen to you, a safe option is to go through a bail bond company.  You pay the bail bond company a percentage of the bail amount and it posts bail on your behalf.  Even if you do not have enough legally obtained money to pay the bail bond company a portion of your bail, it is inexpensive enough that you can ask a friend who has an above-board job to pay the bail bond company for you, and you can reimburse your friend once the case is behind you.

Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

Attorney William Wallshein has more than 38 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County.  Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

local10.com/news/local/2023/08/31/woman-with-luck-tattoo-not-so-lucky-after-detectives-find-florida-stolen-cars-in-miami-dade/