A Knoxville woman employed by a bonding company allegedly pocketed bond payments made on behalf of Anderson County criminal defendants who were then freed from jail, reports the News Sentinel. She now faces arraignment on criminal charges herself next week,
A dozen defendants with lengthy rap sheets and charged with crimes ranging from especially aggravated robbery to aggravated assault were released from jail on invalid bonds, officials said.
Relatives of those defendants whose bond payments were allegedly stolen include two grandmothers, two mothers, a girlfriend and two spouses, records show.
Defendant Lena Graves Nail, 41, also allegedly ripped off the Knoxville bonding company that employed her and the insurance firm that underwrote the bonds.
The incidents occurred between July 2011 and September 2012 and involved fraudulent bond papers submitted to the Anderson County Jail by Nail.
“As you might imagine, this presented a crisis for the criminal justice system,” Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said. “Had it gone public, we could have had defendants abscond, knowing there wasn’t a valid bond.”
“We tried to resolve these cases with just outcomes before the defendants knew there wasn’t a valid bond.”