Supreme Court of SD symbol on glass door in Pierre
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A circuit judge erred when she ordered the forfeiture of bail bonds posted for two criminal defendants in Lincoln County, according to the South Dakota Supreme Court.
In a decision publicly released on Thursday, the state’s high court said Dakota Bail Bonds shouldn’t have been penalized by Circuit Judge Rachel Rasmussen.
The judge found that defendants Mark Wendland and Christopher Carr had violated conditions of their release without good cause, a violation of state law that allowed for the forfeiture of their bonds. A related state law allowed for setting aside the forfeiture, but the judge directed that their bonds be forfeited.
Justice Scott Myren wrote the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion. He said a bail bond is “widely understood” that it’s only to guarantee a defendant’s appearance in court. Wendland and Carr did appear in court.
The Supreme Court ordered that the judge’s forfeiture decisions be reversed.
“DBB’s surety agreement was a contract with the court to pay the specified dollar amount should the defendants fail to appear,” Justice Myren wrote. “Although the defendants violated other conditions of their release, neither of the defendants failed to appear in court. Instead, the defendants’ violations were all related to conditions of release that were not guaranteed by DBB’s surety.”
He continued, “In the absence of a failure to appear, there was no violation of the sole condition DBB guaranteed. Therefore, under SDCL 23A-43-22, the circuit court should have directed that the forfeiture of DBB’s appearance bond be set aside. Consequently, the circuit court erred when it instead entered a judgment of default against DBB.”