Quotes From The Media...

The media has said a lot about Mr Houston & Ms Williams' businesses over the years. Below are a few quotes taken from several newspaper articles. You'll notice the same names appear over and over again, along with lists of allegations made against Mr Houston. What you don't see in the articles, is the background of the people making the allegations, and the background of those who have vowed to close down Mr Houston's businesses. Mr Houston & Ms Williams have had to fight numerous unnecessary, baseless legal battles over the years. A search of information, all public records that anybody can find, sheds light on what is really going on.

An article from the Fort Myers based 'NEWS-PRESS', dated August 18, 1999, with the headline "Competitor suing bail bond company in Collier", gives some details on a civil lawsuit filed against Mr Houston, and one of his employees, Mary J. Livingston. The lawsuit was filed by a competitor, Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds, and their attorney, Mike Carr. In the suit, the competitor accused Mr Houston and Ms Livingston of "illegally soliciting business in the courthouse and the jail and using a similar name to steal clients". On the same date, August 18, 1999, the Naples Daily News also printed an article. Their headline reads, "Regulators crack down on rogue bail bondsmen".

Mike Carr, who at that time was a Criminal Defense Attorney, took on Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds' civil case against Mr Houston and his employee, Mary J. Livingston. Carr's law firm is located in the same plaza as Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds. They are office neighbors.
Mike Carr is now a Collier County Judge, and over the years, he has taken an unusual interest in the bail bonds industry. One might consider his interest to be of a somewhat obsessive nature. Mike Carr's wife, attorney Stephany Carr, is still working at the same location at Carr & Carr, and still an office neighbor of Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds.

A search of Court Records shows that as a defense attorney, Mike Carr represented 105 felony cases between 2000 to 2006, when he was elected as a judge. Almost one third of those cases shows Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds as the bond holder for the defendants. Misdemeanor records were not searched.

Florida Statute 648.44 (1)(a) reads as follows:
(1) A bail bond agent or temporary bail bond agent may not:
(a) Suggest or advise the employment of, or name for employment, any particular attorney to represent his or her principal.

According to the newspaper articles dated 18th August, 1999, and court records, Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds claimed that Mary J. Livingston's business name, Mary J. Bail Bonds, infringed on their business name. A search of the Florida Division of Corporations database (http://www.sunbiz.org/) does not show any results matching Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds when the search is performed by the company name. The only way that the company can be found is by a search of the owners' names. This is made particularly difficult when having to search the numerous number of aliases that one of the business owners uses. Court records show that on April 2005, Mary Minor signed an affidavit to prove that all of the following aliases, were in fact, one person. A list of the aliases are as follows: MARY C. MINOR, MARY L. MINOR, JAMIE L. MINOR, MARY L. CHACKO-MINOR, MARY CHACKO, MARY L. CHACKO, MARY MINOR, JAMIE MINOR, MARY CHACKO-MINOR, MARY C. MINOR, JAMIE L. MINOR, MARY E. MINOR, MARY ELIZABETH MINOR.

Upon finding the articles of incorporation for Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds, the records show that they were not filed until 2006. Nothing prior to that date can be found. The trademark database at http://www.uspto.gov/ provided no results when a trademark search was performed - either under the business name, or owners names. Additionally, no results can be found in the partnership or fictitious names databases at the Florida Division of Corporations. "Mary J." is in fact taken from the name 'Mary J. Livingston', a name she was forced to surrender to Mary & Jimmy's, due to the lawsuit filed by their attorneys, Mike Carr and Fred Hardt, who are now both serving as judges at the Collier County courthouse. Carr & Hardt claimed in the following article that "Employees have been seen soliciting business around the courthouse and in the jail lobby". The article does not state who claims to have seen them personally, but it was part of Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds initial complaint. Without reading a copy of the original complaint, one can only assume that Mary and/or Jimmy must have personally been witness to the alleged solicitations, although on August 18th 1999, Mike Carr was quoted as saying it was Judge Larry Martin that mentioned it, but Judge Larry Martin said otherwise to a different newspaper. During a court hearing, the Naples Daily News makes mention of one witness who is quoted as saying she mistakenly called Mary J Bail Bonds instead of Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds when trying to bond out her son. She said she realized her mistake when the person who picked up the telephone had a 'black voice'. The witness described hearing a 'black voice' on the end of the telephone as a "Horrendous mistake". (SEE ARTICLE)

The Naples Daily News article dated August 18, 1999, states that, "In April, representatives of the sheriff, state attorney, Department of Insurance and bail bonds businesses met to discuss problems in the business. Collier County Judge Larry Martin was outspoken at the meeting about bail bondsmen hanging around 24-hour court to get tips on business. At times, the bondsmen would fill the court and take away seats from victims and witnesses, Martin said"
In the News-Press, the article written on the same date reads, "Martin said he has no firsthand knowledge of these practices but has been told such solicitation was going on."
Another quote from the same article reads, "During a seminar by the state Department of Insurance regarding the bail bond business, Martin mentioned that he saw bond agents taking down the names of defendants when they appeared for their bond hearings, Carr stated in a letter to John E. Hale, state insurance division director."

The articles are written in such a way that they imply that Mr Houston & Ms Williams' businesses are the ones that are participating in unscrupulous practices, when that is not, and never has been the case. With all the meetings and 'crackdowns' that were going on at the time, and Mike Carr's letter-writing campaigns, and varying claims about who saw what, somebody had to be lying. Is this what citizens are to expect from judges? It is unknown whether any other companies were investigated or targeted as part of the 'crackdown', or whether those meetings were held just to discuss one specific business, but there has not been any publication to show that any other company has been targeted. If not, why not? Those present at the meetings claim that 'courtrooms were full of bail bond agents'. Nobody has identified Mr Houston or Ms Williams as any of the people present in the courtrooms. Are the authorities suggesting that every seat in those courtrooms were taken by Liberty & Express employees? That is simply not possible.

Mary Minor of Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds is also listed as 'Manager' in a new venture, which was incorporated on 10/27/2007. The new venture is named 'Seminole Bail Bonds, LLC' - a name misleading enough for the average person to believe they are doing business with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Florida Statute 648.44 (2) Reads as follows:

(2) The following persons or classes shall not be bail bond agents, temporary bail bond agents, or employees of a bail bond agent or a bail bond business and shall not directly or indirectly receive any benefits from the execution of any bail bond:
(a) Jailers or persons employed in any jail.
(b) Police officers or employees of any police department or law enforcement agency.
(c) Committing magistrates, employees of a court, or employees of the clerk of any court.
(d) Sheriffs and deputy sheriffs or employees of any sheriff's department.
(e) Attorneys.
(f) Persons having the power to arrest or persons who have authority over or control of federal, state, county, or municipal prisoners.

One of Mary Minor's husbands was/is employed at the Naples Jail. Public records do not show which husband. Records show that her first husband filed for divorce in 2003, immediately after filing a domestic violence/injunction for protection order against her on 6/10/2003 (CLICK TO VIEW COURT DOCUMENT). Dates on the divorce filings show that the divorce went through very quickly, and makes one question whether this was a real divorce, or just something convenient to do because of the attention that the marriage was drawing from other bondsmen. Some people would tell you that the divorce was simply to look good on paper. A situation that was never investigated, were claims that once her husband had made an arrest, he would give the person in custody the telephone number to Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds. Other local bondsmen have approached Mr Houston & Ms Williams in the past regarding Mary Minor's husband's employment at the jail. A petition had been started because other bondsmen felt that was an unfair practice. It is not known what happened to the petition, but it was not signed by Mr Houston or Ms Williams because they were still successful in the business regardless of what the competition was doing.

Since Mr Houston and Ms Williams appeared on the television broadcast, some information was anonymously sent in. The information simply reads:
"Sgt Jamie Minor was a supervisor at the Naples jail from about 2002 to 2007"
"Sgt Minor is the husband of Mary Minor from Mary and Jimmy's Bail Bonds"
"Sgt Minor was transferred to another department prior to the search warrant being executed at Express/Liberty Bail Bonds"
"Sgt Minor retired prior to the arrests of Mr Houston and Ms Williams"

We do believe this information to be accurate - Jamie Minor is also an alias that Mary Minor has signed to using. We know that in the search warrant, the false "information" about Mr Houston allegedly paying inmates to act as bond agents came from inside the jail. We can see that there is probably something suspicious about their divorce, and other sources of information claim Mary Minor's husband is in the process of opening his own bail bond business.

In 2002 Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds contributed $250 to Mike Carr's election campaign when he ran for State Attorney. He lost the election to Stephen Russell.

The Naples Daily News wrote three more articles about Mary J. Livingston & Mr Houston regarding the surrender of the business name to Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds.
The first article was written on January 26, 2000. The headline reads: "Bondswoman ordered to give up number"
The second article was written on March 4, 2001. The headline reads: "Collier attorney joins effort to clean up bail bond business"
The third article was written on September 24, 2001. The headline reads: "Arbitrator finds bail bonds company infringed on name "

Perhaps the most interesting of the three articles listed above, is the second one written in March 2001. In this particular article, attorney Mike Carr is said to have waged a letter-writing campaign about the bail bonds business (CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE)
QUOTE: "Carr, who has waged a letter-writing campaign with authorities in Tallahassee over the issue, said he has reason to hope that change is coming to clean up the business."We now have a promise from (new Insurance Commissioner) Tom Gallagher that the department will act," said Carr, whose clients include a bail bond company in Collier County. Gallagher told Carr his agency is serious about beefing up enforcement and using whatever tactics it can to rein in those bondsmen who skirt the law. He invited Carr to talk with representatives of his department along with bail bond industry leaders at a Tallahassee meeting on the topic Monday."

Even more interesting, is the relationship that Mike Carr and Tom Gallagher have had over the years.

TOM GALLAGHER:
1989 – 1995 Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida.
1999 – 2001 Education Commissioner of Florida
2001 – 2003 Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal of Florida
(Elected Nov 2000)
January 2003 – 2007 Chief Financial Officer of Florida.

In 2006, Tom Gallagher ran for Governor against Charlie Crist. During the campaign, many news articles show Gallagher's campaign to be full of implications and accusations that Charlie Crist is homosexual. Tom Gallagher lost the election to Gov. Charlie Crist.

MIKE CARR:
Mike Carr is a former Alachua County Deputy who later became a defense attorney. He has also served as assistant state attorney in southwest Florida, and as counsel for the Collier County Supervisor of Elections. He ran for state attorney in 2002, but did not win the election. Carr is now a Collier County Judge (A county judge hears misdemeanor cases and civil lawsuits of less than $15,000).

Carr has written articles for the Naples Daily News, and has received endorsements from them any time he has made a run for public office. Naples Daily News has also named Mike Carr as a finalist for "Citizen of the Year".

From 2000 to 2004 Mike Carr served as Chairman of the Collier County GOP (Collier County Republican Executive Committee). He was ousted from the chairmanship of the Collier County Republican Party's Executive Committee for "pursuit deemed overzealous".
RELATED ARTICLES:
"Rankin wants Carr ousted from GOP chairmanship" (Naples Daily News, 11/27/2001)
"Carr stood alone in vote on PSC ethics case" (St. Petersburg Times / Naples Daily News, 10/22/2005)

On August 19, 2005 – Mike Carr became part of the board of the Florida Commission on Ethics. In 2006, the Commission (including Mike Carr), reviewed three complaints against Tom Gallagher, and dismissed all three complaints.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE PRESS RELEASE FROM THE COMMISSION REGARDING THOSE COMPLAINTS.
A second article, which mentions that at the time the board considered the complaints, Tom Gallagher was running for election as Governor. The article makes mention of Mike Carr's financial contribution to Gallaghers campaign against Crist.
READ ARTICLE

Mike Carr & Tom Gallagher's relationship goes back to at least 1994, when Mike Carr represented Tom Gallagher (as Treasurer for the State of Florida), Jim Smith (as Secretary of State), and Thomas Slade (as chairman of the Republican Party of the State of Florida).
CLICK HERE TO VIEW FURTHER DETAILS.

When Mike Carr was asked why he was backing for Tom Gallagher for Governor, he responded by saying, "You can have a discussion with Tom Gallagher and he has an intricate knowledge of state government" (Naples Daily News Article Published 6/12/2006)

In 2000, two people were cited for walking their dogs without a leash. They hired Mike Carr, who make national news when he tried to put the two dogs on the stand during a court hearing. “We wanted to make the point that the dogs were under the control of their owners, so if they’re under control, they don’t need a leash,” Carr said. They lost the case and the dogs owners were fined.

In April 2006, Mike Carr got upset about an anonymous mailout that attempts to hammer Collier County Commissioner Frank Halas, who was seeking re-election, and prominent builder Fred Pezeshkan of Kraft Construction. Carr made suggestion that Steve Russell (A State Attorney) investigate it. LINK

FEBRUARY & MARCH 2004 – Florida Bar received and dismissed complaints against Mike Carr. Complaints were made by two Naples attorneys - David Agoston and Gregory Gennett. Carr was accused of slander. LINKS: ARTICLE 1 AND ARTICLE 2

JANUARY 2004 Mike Carr represented Victor A. Valdes, who was sentenced in drug charges and a cock-fighting charge. Carr's representation of Valdes drew criticism from Naples attorney Donald Day, who accused Carr of hypocrisy by representing a client who's charged with crimes that Carr has vocally and actively opposed. He has lobbied state lawmakers for stiffer sentences for those convicted of animal cruelty and performed free legal work for several animal rights groups and people involved in such cases. Carr defended himself, saying Valdes is a family friend. Valdes was released on bond amounts of $100,000 and $52.500. The bond holder was Mary & Jimmy's bail bonds. LINK
(ARTICLES REGARDING MIKE CARR'S OPPOSITION TO ANIMAL CRUELTY INCLUDE:
Director refuses to give face-to-face interview with investigator
County believes in attorney Mike Carr to be objective
Animal advocates try to prevent abuse
- Mike Carr quickly dropped everything he claimed to believe in to defend a 'family friend' for cock-fighting).

Over the years, Mike Carr has relentlessly, and openly pursued the bail bonds industry in Collier County beyond the realms of reasonable limits. Yet it remains to be seen whether any other bail bonds company has been investigated, or whether the sole targets of his activism, involvement, and criticism, are Mr Houston & Ms Williams. It appears that they have been the sole target of his efforts. Mr Houston and Ms Williams have been harassed since they opened their first location.

Mike Carr has been outspoken, and very public with his opinions. The quotes below show how passionate he is about closing down 'unscrupulous' bail bonds companies. Combine the quotes with the knowledge that only one business has been targeted, and is is obvious that the relentless and malicious prosecution that has occurred over the years has nothing to do with 'business practices' (Mr Houston has been cleared of every charge other than one misdemeanor charge in the past for allowing office staff to deliver pre-signed bonds to the jail), but more importantly, because of his relationship with Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds, he launched a cruel and baseless vendetta against Mr Houston and Ms Williams and their business interests.

QUOTES:

"Carr said he intends to subpoena Collier County Judge Larry Martin as a witness in the case [Mary & Jimmy's Bail Bonds vs Joseph Houston & Mary J. Livingston]. Carr said that Martin apparently mentioned such business solicitation going on in his courtroom"
"Martin said he has no firsthand knowledge of these practices but has been told such solicitation was going on."
VIEW ENTIRE ARTICLE

"The Florida Department of Insurance is charged with regulating the bail bonds industry."
"Collier Sheriff Don Hunter is urging the Department of Insurance to seek injunctions against those who commit fraudulent acts in the bail bonds industry"
"Carr agrees with Hunter that more should be done. He sees corruption getting a foot in the door if more scrutiny of the bail bonds industry isn't undertaken locally. "I wish the Department of Insurance was more aggressive," Carr said. "I haven't seen fire in the gut to stop these corrupt activities."
"In April, representatives of the sheriff, state attorney, Department of Insurance and bail bonds businesses met to discuss problems in the business"
VIEW ENTIRE ARTICLE

"Perkins and Collier County attorney Mike Carr agree it's not much of a risk. And they complain that the state Department of Insurance most often just slaps offenders with an administrative fine that's dwarfed by the amount of money they make breaking the law."
"Carr said compared to what Houston made with his practices, the punishment was a bee sting. Administrative fines are just a cost of doing business," he said. Even when there is strong evidence showing that a bail bondsman is corrupt, and even though the Department of Insurance has broad powers to suspend or revoke the license of the bondsman, the department doesn't bring much pressure to bear on offenders, Carr said."
"Carr, who has waged a letter-writing campaign with authorities in Tallahassee over the issue, said he has reason to hope that change is coming to clean up the business. "We now have a promise from (new Insurance Commissioner) Tom Gallagher that the department will act," said Carr, whose clients include a bail bond company in Collier County. Gallagher told Carr his agency is serious about beefing up enforcement and using whatever tactics it can to rein in those bondsmen who skirt the law. He invited Carr to talk with representatives of his department along with bail bond industry leaders at a Tallahassee meeting on the topic Monday. The group will focus on pending legislation that would tighten oversight of the industry and give the department more teeth to deal with scofflaw bondsmen."
"Carr said his optimism about reform not only in legislation but also within the department springs from the promise made to him by Gallagher, who took office in January. Gallagher has said his order to crack down on rogue bail bondsmen should show results and soon. "The big thing is that Tom Gallagher is saying he's not going to tolerate this," Carr said. "They are going to take people who consistently violate the law and yank their licenses. Then other folks in the business will realize it's not profitable to make a career out of breaking the law writing bail bonds."
VIEW ENTIRE ARTICLE