Two men were chained to the door of the Dothan County municipal courtroom in Dothan, Alabama last month by bounty hunter Rickey Stokes.
Earlier this month, one of those two men, 34-year-old Greg Tiller of Dothan, was arrested by police and charged with jumping bail. Upon his arrest, Tiller was booked into the City Jail and subsequently transferred to the County Jail in Houston where a close relative told reporters that his bail had been set at $6,000. He was scheduled to appear in court on June 2nd for charges of drug possession but failed to show up. Two days later he turned himself in to Stokes.
For Stokes’ part, he told reporters that he made an attempt to turn Tiller and another suspect over to the court or to Dothan County authorities but that police refused to take custody of them because at the time there were no active warrants out calling for their arrest. At the time that they were brought in by Stokes, court was not in session.
Stokes had brought the two men to the courthouse to hand them over but when he saw that court was not in session, he chained both of them to the door of the building and left. They were freed about twenty minutes later.
Both Tiller and his mother, who spoke to reporters on behalf of her son, claimed that they were under the impression that his turning himself in to Stokes, appearing in court and pleading guilty to the drug possession charge would resolve whatever legal issues he was facing. They were surprised to learn that Tiller was also being charged with bail jumping.
Stokes had filed a complaint with the city magistrate regarding Tiller jumping bail. He told reporters that the law clearly states that if an individual misses a scheduled court date and does not have sufficient cause, then it is considered bail jumping.