New Information in Cox Arrest

The St. Louis Post Dispatch printed a new article today concerning the charges against Gerald Cox, James Cox, and other licensed and unlicensed bounter hunters who were charged yesterday with kidnapping, stealing, tampering with a vehicle, and the licensed men were charged with failing to notify law enforcement before performing an apprehension. James Cox and Morris Davis were additionally charged with performing fugitive recovery without a license.

According to the article: "A raid at motel on Aug. 17 capped weeks of fruitless attempts to grab, bail bond client Leah Renee Pinion. Pinion served some time, got out and went back to jail on a probation violation, Circuit Judge Philip Heagney said. On July 14, her boyfriend arranged for Cox to post a $30,000 bond for Pinion's freedom. The boyfriend paid $1,500 of a $3,000 fee and promised the rest in weekly installments, according to court documents. But on Aug. 9, the boyfriend changed his mind and wanted off of the bond. Judge Heagney suspended Pinion's probation Aug. 11 and ordered her arrest, citing information from her probation officer and a bondsman. Bounty hunters, presumable hired by Jerry Cox, caught Pinion that day, but she escaped. On Aug. 14 and 16, Pinion called Cox to say she would surrender, but she didn't. In a 1:30 a.m. raid at the motel, four bounty hunters grabbed Pinion and her boyfriend together. The two were taken in handcuffs to Jerry Cox's office, court documents say. Alone with the boyfriend after sending the others away, Jerry Cox allegedly toyed with a handgun and said he had spoken to a prosecutor who "asked him why he had not arrested" the boyfriend on charges of aiding and abetting a fugitive, a court affidavit says. Cox allegedly told the boyfriend that he would be charged, and that his $1,500 in cash and home would be seized, unless he paid $5,500, the documents say. When the boyfriend agreed to pay, Cox let him go. The man's mother paid the $5,500 on Aug. 22, using the a life insurance settlement from her stepson's death, according to the documents. James Cox reportedly told her that they could have taken her son's house but were really in the "money business," not the real estate business, the documents say. Wayne Schoenberg, Jerry Cox's lawyer, said his client was home in bed during the raid. The lawyer denied that Jerry Cox had a gun in the meeting, and said there was no agreement to exchange money for a promise of no prosecution. Cox told the boyfriend only that he could have gone to prosecutors, Schoenberg said. The $5,500 represented the $1,500 that the boyfriend still owed, about $1,000 in expenses and a $3,000 fee for sending out bounty hunters — all spelled out in the bail contract, Schoenberg said."

Several news agencies report that James and Jerry Cox presented themselves to authorities yesterday and were booked, posted bond and released.

Read the entire St. Louis Post Dispatch aricle here.