[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             BOUNTY HUNTERS

  (Mr. HUTCHINSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, in July of 1994, Jrae Mason, a 
grandmother, was sitting on the front porch of her house in Manhattan 
when she was approached by two strangers, bounty hunters who believed 
her to be a woman who had skipped bail in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Despite 
Ms. Mason's protests to the contrary, these strangers handcuffed her 
and forcibly took her to the police station. Despite police 
verification that she was who she said she was, the bounty hunters 
forcibly took her from New York to Alabama in handcuffs, in essence, 
kidnapped her.
  In Alabama, Ms. Mason finally convinced authorities that she was the 
wrong person. It was not hard to do since she looked nothing like the 
bail jumper.
  Three-and-a-half days and 910 miles later the bounty hunters finally 
acknowledged their error. Did they send her back to New York on an 
airplane? Of course not. They paid for a bus ticket to send Ms. Mason 
home.
  Is it not time for a little accountability in the bounty hunter 
profession? Skilled professional bounty hunters want it. Our law 
enforcement community wants it. And certainly innocent Americans want 
it.
  This will be the subject of a hearing in the Committee on the 
Judiciary tomorrow. I urge my colleagues to support the Citizens 
Protection Act.

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