In the Hopper: Bill would regulate charitable bail organizations

Senate File 415 (chief author, Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch). This bill to regulate charitable bail organizations passed out of Senate Judiciary to the floor on March 1. But the way it got there starched a few Democrats’ collars.

The bill would require the organizations, which routinely solicit public donations to help people post bail, to register as nonprofits.

They also would have to comply with Rule 702 of the state courts’ Rules of General Practice. That rule requires anyone in the business of procuring bail bonds, whether through cash or surety, to get the State Court Administrator’s approval.

The bill also limits what charitable bail organizations can do. They could not, for example, deposit bail for anyone charged with a violent crime, or for a crime that could get the suspect registered as a predatory offender list. Nor could anyone previously convicted of such crimes get bail from one of the organizations.

While the legislation never mentions any organization by name, there is no question that it is aimed at one in particular—the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF).

Before the George Floyd protests last May, the MFF raised a modest amount of money to help people in trouble raise bail and gain release. According to the Washington Post, its 2018 tax returns showed it netted $100,000 that year.

But after last year’s demonstrations grew violent and people started getting arrested en masse, the MFF reportedly experienced a financial windfall. Partly on the strength of a supportive tweet from the vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, the group raised $35 million in just a few weeks last year, according to news reports.

Most donors thought they were helping protesters get out of jail, said Jeff Clayton of the American Bail Association, who supports the legislation. But that, he said, wasn’t necessarily true.

In August, KMSP-TV reported that, after being deluged with donations, MFF bailed out some violent crime suspects not connected to the protests. According to the TV station, that included a $100,000 bail-out for a woman accused of killing a friend and a $350,000 bail for a convicted rapist who was charged with new counts of kidnapping, assault and rape.

“We have a charitable bail organization that doesn’t seem to operate by any rules or standards and they’re not licensed as other charitable bail organizations are,” Koran said, referencing the MFF. His bill would require county sheriffs and District Court administrators to report specified information before accepting bail from a charitable organization.

That data would be classified public and would have to be reported to the state court administrator. In turn, the administrator would have to send the Legislature an annual report on charitable bail organizations’ activity.

The bill authorizes the state court administrator is to impose sanctions and costs on any organizations that violate the new law, or any related court rule or policy.

Democrats on the Judiciary committee spoke favorably toward the bill but were asked that its momentum be slowed just long enough to work through some language.  Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said he worried that the way it is written, someone who committed a drug offense 10 or more years ago could be denied help from a CBO. That’s because some drug crimes are classified under statute as violent crimes, he said.

“That is contradictory to the purpose of the organizations and the purpose of this bill,” Latz said.

Koran indicated that he’d be willing to work with Latz after the hearing, to smooth out the bill’s rough edges before it makes its next stop — on the Senate floor. Latz maintained that work should be done in the committee and resisted the idea.

In the end, committee Chair Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, urged members to go ahead vote for it and pass the bill to the floor.

“I do like full discussions,” Limmer said. “At the same time, we are running out of time for other bills. I think I am going to make a rare exception and move the bill.”

He did and his committee approved it, 6-3. All three Democrats voted no.

The full Senate next convenes on Thursday, but the Koran bill was not on that day’s floor agenda at the time of this writing.

The bill’s companion, House File 583 (Rep. Paul Novotny, R-Elk River), was introduced on Feb. 1 and referred to House Public Safety. That committee, which has bills lined up through March 12, has not scheduled it for a hearing.