As expected, the DIFP has filed a petition for review of the Administrative Hearing Commission’s ruling on the Donald Christian case. The AHC said, “The Director of Insurance has no cause to discipline Donald Christian under 374.755 RSMO Supp. 2006, as set forth in the Director’s complaint because that version did not exist at the time Christian was convicted of a felony.”
Christian pled guilty to the felony of possession of a controlled substance in 1998. The Director licensed Christian as a bail bond agent in March 2005. The Director filed a complaint with the AHC in November 2006 because of his felony conviction. The commission said they had no authority to discipline a licensee on the basis of a version of the disciplinary statute that did not exist at the time that the conviction for a proposed disciplinary action. The AHC said that the previous version of the statute in effect at the time of Christian’s 1998 plea allowed discipline for the licensee, but the commission could not use that version because the Director did not rely on it in his complaint.
The last time the DIFP filed a petition for review was the Cummings case. In that ruling, the court reversed the AHC and said that the department can retrospectively apply current bail bond licensing statutes to determine the licensing eligibility of bondsmen.
The case was filed in Cole County Circuit Court, case number: 07AC-CC00528.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
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