Title: Rubber Bullets
Author: Roni Faciane
Genre: Non-Fiction/True Crime Memoir
Book Blurb:
Roni was left to fight a fight that few could win.
She filled with rage while holding her baby, now covered in bruises. Pleading prayers to a God that wouldn't protect her. Forced to push back murderous plots in her head. After all, her son and daughter relied on her training to dispense justice---not revenge. To defend her baby, she took her own beating in front of a judge and vowed to make them pay.
Five years later, she would again face that same system. This time she was a huntress of fugitives---a bounty hunter. A newfound badge of redemption propelled her into the spotlight.
Exploited, threatened and sued, she continued her mission.
But she found her biggest challenge in the case of human trafficking, the deaths of six young women, and two serial killers.
Excerpt:
“Today we are arresting Ben Blass, B-L-A-S-S. He’s a little guy, only 5’7,” 170 pounds, a little husky, 35-year-old and has a $100,000 case for sales of meth, possession assault with a deadly weapon. So he likes to fight and likes to sell drugs. I called him up and am having him meet us at Arby’s here in Huntington Beach, he was kind of hinky at first, but I told him that the agent that met him originally, the old lady, she screwed up and forgot to get his thumbprint and photograph and I needed to have that done before I turn the file in. The agreement is to meet him here at the Arby’s, and hopefully, he will show up. The bail bond company hired us to revoke his bond, so actually, technically, he's not a fugitive; his bond has been revoked by the bail bond company for false information, breach of contract, and several other things. They want him in custody right away.”—Lipstick Bounty Hunters, 2013, March 18.
It was a standard rundown of how the beginning of a possible bail arrest begins when working as a bounty hunter, and a client has become “wayward,” breaching their bail contract. Not all cases are for a failed court appearance. The uneducated assume its impossible to be re-arrested while on bail and not be a fugitive. Many people breach their contracts for late payments, bad-blood with their co-signor, or committing more crimes that create risks for the bondsman and the surety companies forcing them to return their client to jail. Blass was out on four bail bonds, four pending cases (legally creating three additional charges of crime bail crime) with three different bondsmen. It was his last bondsman that hired Staci and Laci to revoke his bond.
Everyone assumed Blass failed to pay his bondsman, but that was not what happened. Blass used a personal check on a closed bank account, not insufficient funds, to bail out and writing a personal check on a closed account—and you know damn well the account is closed—is a felony with intent.
He got out of jail for free and continued to break the law. Many, law enforcement included, do not agree with the “gray areas” bondsmen use as their right to return a person to jail. I get it. It does contribute to unnecessary chaos in the community and overcrowding in the county jails and state prisons.
The cluster fuck is maddening, but in a business where you have thousands of dollars on the line to the court as a bondsman, what would you do?
Bail is a constitutional right and a built-in necessity of our judicial system. Someone has to do the job. Staci notified local police of who we were, where we were, and who we were arresting. Notifying the police is a required practice for bounty hunters who don’t want to go to jail, especially if there is no active warrant in the system because the bondsman is revoking the bond for a breach of contractual terms.
Then, we sat waiting for a text from the cameraman or the decoy bail agent that Blass had arrived. My partners and I reviewed his file and discovered that not only was Blass, a meth dealer but that he also had an assault with a deadly weapon(s) charge. A warning for us to proceed with caution because it was likely there was a weapon on him. At the very least, he was going to resist and fight.
He also was affiliated with local white supremacist gangs. That made me more nervous than the possible deadly weapon. He was going to hate my ass. I worked in a men’s prison years prior and understood the risks of possibly being shanked or attacked, but I knew it was a “cage fight” of sorts, and my attacker wouldn’t get far. Bounty hunting was a different beast in tactics altogether.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
(website) Roni Faciane - Shop
(Amazon English edition)
(Smashwords English Edition)
What’s your favorite thing about the fall season:
I love the change in weather. The night comes earlier, the cool breeze turns cold and the leaves change colors.
What inspired you to write this story:
I’ve always loved to write but it wasn’t until after becoming an internet villain I felt it was time to tell my story in a book.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon (US) gift card.
Open internationally. You must have a valid Amazon US account to win.
Runs September 1 – 30
Drawing will be held on October 1.
Author Biography:
Roni Faciane is a certified life coach, and former Lipstick Bounty Hunter, who advocates for improved protections for abused children, quality police and prison reforms, decriminalization of sex work and dangers of media disinformation. After facing a lawsuit for $52 million for the arrest of a bail client turned murderer, the deaths of two women sex workers she helped to arrest, and prosecuting her daughter's abusers, Roni devoted herself to advocating for victims who are often ignored, silenced and judged by powerful entities who thrive on the pain of others for profit.
Her experience as a former bounty hunter and prison guard giver her a unique perspective on victims and criminals. She helped arrest wayward bail clients, mostly fugitives, in Southern California, but is best known for the attempted capture of Daniel Lee Duvall in 2013. A video of Roni and the owners of Lipstick Bail Bonds pursuing Duvall went viral, generating national and international attention. Duvall sued both Roni and Lipstick for $52 million. He claimed Roni blinded him with a rubber bullet during the attempt and that the women used excessive force violating his civil rights.
Following the flood of media interest in the Duvall case, Roni visited the California State Senate in Sacramento to discuss amending some of the language in the bail laws. She also met with both the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and Board Members at the Academy for the Department of Corrections to advocate for changes to training programs for bounty hunters.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit after a judge sentenced Duvall to 80 years in prison in 2017 for murdering his uncle with a fatal gunshot in 2015.
After the deaths of two women she helped locate as a bounty hunter, she began to advocate decriminalizing sex work and better monitoring and research of sex offenders. Kiana Jackson in 2013 missed a court date, forcing the bail agent to hire bounty hunters to find her. Authorities later discovered she and four others were victims of California serial killers Steven Gordon and Franc Cano. Both were homeless sex offenders required to wear GPS ankle monitors.
Roni is available for speaking engagements for victims' rights organizations. She lives in Nevada and is the mother of two children, a son, and a daughter.
Her book, Rubber Bullets, released in 2020 and the Spanish Edition in 2021.
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