VA Magistrate Forges Documents to Give Bail Agent Dad Business

A local Virginia paper, the Bristol Herald Courier, is accusing Abingdon, VA magistrate John C. “Tiny” Mullins III of forging documents to funnel business to his father’s bail bonds company. As a magistrate, Tiny Mullins had the ability to decide whether or not they could be freed from jail and could set bail for certain defendants. While setting bail amounts and sending clients to his father, J.C. Mullins Jr. of Abingdon Bail Bonds was not illegal, the chief magistrate and Abingdon judges decided it wasn’t ethical and told Tiny that he could not set bail amounts for his father’s clients.

Tiny Mullins is in trouble for using a coworkers electronic signature to skirt this rule and send his father bonds. The coworker is also potentially in trouble for giving Tiny Mullins his personal password to log-in to the computer system.