New Haven Independent

Robert, Phil and Paul Jacobs took turns saying “guilty” just as the clock struck noon inside the Church Street courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Janet B. Arterton.

They admitted they paid bribes to former Lt. Billy White to track down clients who owed them money.

The pleas by the operators of New Haven’s leading bail-bonds firm capped a two-and-a-half-hour proceeding that took place partly in private because of references to confidential informants in an ongoing federal probe of corruption in New Haven’s recently disbanded, soon-to-be-reconstituted police narcotics unit.

Prosecutor Nora Dannehy portrayed Robert Jacobs, the white-haired 80-year-old family patriarch who has insured defendants’ bonds for 50 years, as the ringleader of the operation, who personally arranged to pay the bribes to former Lt. Billy White. White pleaded guilty last week to accepting bribes and stealing suspected drug dealers’ cash.

“I paid money to William White, a police officer in New Haven, to apprehend fugitives who were on bond to me or my sons, and I knew the payment was illegal,” Robert Jacobs told Judge Arterton. “When somebody was missing who we were actively looking for, William White would ask if it was worth apprehending him.”

Asked if the Jacobses would lose their licenses, the state Insurance Department issued a noncomittal statement: “The Connecticut Insurance Department has been made aware that there has been a legal decision rendered against Robert, Paul and Philip Jacobs who have pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy charges stemming from a federal corruption probe into certain bail bond practices. We will review all official documents when received by this agency and take appropriate administrative action based on our statutory authority. Further details about the process regarding any administrative actions taken by the Connecticut Insurance Department will be forthcoming.”

Prosecutor Dannehy (pictured leaving the courthouse Wednesday) recommended that Robert Jacobs serve between 30 to 37 months in jail and pay a fine of up to $60,000. The government’s recommended sentences for Paul and Phil Jacobs are for 18 to 24 months in jail and a $40,000 fine apiece. In addition, the three defendants will repay a combined $750,000 in forfeited funds under the agreement.

Arterton is scheduled to sentence them on Feb. 27.

Pending “Disaster”?

That’s longer than it usually takes to sentence defendants after their guilty pleas. Willie Dow, Robert Jacobs’ attorney, requested the extended time in order to work out a complicated problem: what to do about the Jacobses’ licenses.

They face loss of their bail bondsmen licenses now that they’ve pleaded guilty. That could cause a “financial disaster” for them and their insurer — and an administrative nightmare for the courts — since they so thoroughly dominate the bond business in New Haven’s state courts, Dow noted.

Dow estimated that the Jacobs family currently represents thousands of criminal defendants who are out on bond. If any of those defendants fails to show up in court, their bonds will be called, and the Jacobses (or more likely their insurance company) will have to come up with the money. And the court will have to keep track of a whole lot of hard-to-find accused crooks. Bail bondsmen are generally liable for upwards of 50 percent of the value of bonds posted for disappearing defendants.

“We’re hopeful that the [state] Insurance Department takes all this into consideration” when deciding whether to revoke the Jacobses’ licenses, Dow said, speaking outside the courthouse after the plea. Dow said he plans at Jacobs’ sentencing to emphasize his client’s 50 years of service. And he characterized Jacobs as having admitted to a mistake of not “following proper procedure” and “taking a shortcut” in the otherwise laudable goal of catching fugitives.

Five Years Of Bribes

Inside the courtroom, the bail bondsmen’s transgressions were characterized in graver tones.

The white-jacketed prosecutor Dannehy, who has sent Gov. John Rowland and former top state official Peter Ellef to prison in previous government corruption cases, said the Jacobs family engaged in an arrangement with Billy White that they knew was illegal, for five years. The arrangement ended in their arrests this March. It turned out a state police sergeant serving as Billy White’s partner was working undercover as part of a federal probe into corruption at the city police narc unit.

The Jacobs family would pay White in cash to “influence and reward” him to “use his official position” to give them preferred treatment in tracking down fugitives. They also paid him to steer customers to their firm, according to Dannehy.

Robert Jacobs leaned on the ledge of the courtroom’s empty jury box as Dannehy detailed evidence the government planned to present if the case had gone to trial. His sons Paul and Phil stood nearby without the benefit of physical support.

Dannehy said the government had witness testimony, documents, and tape recordings ready to go to detail three instances in particular in which the Jacobses paid $24,404 altogether to secure the return of three fugitives.

Dannehy turned to face Paul Jacobs as she spoke of a fax he sent to the undercover police sergeant with terms of one such transaction.

While his father and brother were contrite throughout the two and a half hour session, Paul Jacobs was clearly ambivalent. The other two showed up in court having agreed to plead guilty; Paul Jacobs, who’s 49, met with his attorney, Andrew Bowman, over a 30-minute recess before agreeing to do so, too. Paul’s father and brother Phil, who’s 47, repeatedly told the judge, without qualification, that they had done what they were accused of. Paul said he broke the law, too, but he added provisos: that he had done so only once, “at the urging of my father,” and without speaking directly on the phone with Billy White or the sergeant.

All three defendants said they are under psychiatric care and are taking, or have taken, medication as a result.

Robert and Phil run the “retail end” of the business, while Paul “acted as a general agent” in securing bonds, Dannehy told the court.

The Jacobses are free on $750,000 bond pending their sentencing.

After a half-century of serving as bondsmen for thousands of accused criminals, they didn’t have to hire bondsmen of their own now that they’re on the other side of the law. That’s because they’re in federal, not state court. “That’s the unique aspect of federal court,” Willie Dow noted. “You don’t use a bail bondsman.”