Dexter Higgins
A bondsman who is serving a 30-day suspension from bonding privileges has been arrested on a charge of stalking.
Dexter Higgins, 42, of 7050 Mule Deer Dr. in Ooltewah turned himself in at the jail where he regularly makes bonds.
A woman told police she had been seeing Higgins, but she said she broke it off because he became violent and possessive.
She said she had not made any complaints about it because she did not want to cause him problems as a bail bondsman.
The woman said there had been several times that she had been physically and verbally abused by Higgins.
She said even though she had told him not to come around her, he would not leave her alone or stop talking to her.
She said he would call her at her job and stop by her residence at all hours of the night. She said he would bang on the door until she answered.
An officer said the woman "became upset and showed fear when talking about Higgins. She was afraid what Higgins would do after filing the report."
She met the officer away from her home for fear that he would see the patrol car at her house.
Police said Higgins had been arrested for violating a past order of protection involving another girlfriend as well as "assaults on other people without provocation."
The suspension against Higgins came after two complaints were filed against him.
The Criminal Court judges held a hearing and then put down the suspension against the Key Bonding representative.
Judges Barry Steelman and Don Poole conducted the hearing and Judge Rebecca Stern concurred in the ruling.
Bondsman Richard Cox had filed a complaint saying he was in the process of writing a $20,000 bond for a Soddy Daisy couple to get their daughter out of jail at a $2,000 rate. He said he then was told at the jail by the woman's boyfriend that Higgins was writing it for $600.
He said he and Higgins got into an argument, and Higgins "threatened to whip my a--."
Jail officials also complained that Higgins had been in an area of the jail where bondsmen are only supposed to be when they are surrendering bonds.