With her license on the line, bail agent testifies about fatal shooting of Palm Springs man

Bail agent Melissa Lippert has broken her public silence about her involvement in the events leading up to the death of a Palm Springs man who was fatally shot last year by a bounty hunter she employed.

Lippert — who is facing the revocation of her license by the California Department of Insurance — testified in an administrative hearing last month about the confrontation that resulted in Fabian Hector Herrera, the bounty hunter, and Lisa Roberta Vargas, his mother, being charged with David Spann’s murder.

The case the Insurance Department has brought against her, she said, is motivated by its shortcomings and not hers, asserting during testimony that the department is "trying to make an example of me."

Lippert said that the shooting and its aftermath have been "extremely devastating," and have her questioning her career. "I got into the industry to help," she testified, adding later: "This incident has really changed my outlook on that. Now I’m not enjoying what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years."

The Department of Insurance is seeking to revoke Lippert's license on the grounds that she violated the state’s Insurance Code by making promises to Spann’s family she couldn’t keep and employing people she had not adequately vetted.

Herrera was a convicted felon when he broke down Spann's front door with a sledgehammer, and he was not legally permitted to possess the firearm he used in the shooting. Because of his criminal record, he was not supposed to be working as a bounty hunter.

Vargas is charged with illegally buying the gun for Herrera months before the shooting. Lippert and a second bail agent who was involved in hiring Herrera, Jose Navarro, have said they didn't know about Herrera's criminal history when he was hired to apprehend Spann.

More: Palm Springs bounty hunter shooting: New bodycam footage sheds light on police response

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Both Lippert and Navarro claim that Herrera fired the lethal shot at the order of a Palm Springs police officer who was dispatched to Spann's home after reports of a break-in. The officer found Herrera holding Spann at gunpoint, while Spann was holding a knife.

Administrative Law Judge Debbie Nye-Perkins has yet to issue a ruling on whether Lippertt should lose her license, and has until the middle of July to do so. Navarro is also facing similar discipline, but his hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Whatever the outcome, the June hearing has provided a window into the challenges families face when a loved one with substance abuse issues enters the legal system, and the complex and sometimes opaque practices of bail agents and bounty hunters.

'What's best for David...'

Kandis Spann, who was engaged to be married to David Spann and had changed her last name to his, testified during Lippert's hearing to the confusion, concern and, ultimately, the pain that her late fiance's substance abuse problems and dealings with the bail industry had on her and the couple's two children.

Testifying through a live videostream, she provided an often emotional account of the last weeks of Spann's life in the spring of 2021. She and her fiance had grown apart due to David Spann's substance abuse problems, she testified. She had sought and been granted a restraining order after she grew fearful of what harm he might cause to himself, her, or their children.

But she was committed to helping him receive the treatment she believed he needed, and to salvaging their young family.

"My main concern was getting him into rehabilitation," Spann told the judge.

David Spann was arrested in early April 2021 because he allegedly contacted her, in violation of the restraining order. The alleged crime was a misdemeanor and could have resulted in a fine or jail time if he were convicted.

Soon after David Spann was taken into custody, Kandis Spann recounted, she went to the courthouse in Indio to get more information about where he was and what might happen to him.

She and David’s brother, Bill Spann, were told to contact Lippert, who was in the process of bailing him out. David Spann paid $8,500 to bail himself out, according to the Insurance Department.

They called her from the Indio parking lot and by speakerphone discussed what would happen next. Both testified that Lippert said she would attempt to help David Spann get substance abuse treatment and established herself as the point of contact for matters relating to his bail.

"I want what’s best for David as well as for you and your family," both recollected Lippert saying during the call.

"I asked her to help my brother get into a rehab facility," Bill Spann testified, "to take care of him, to make sure he doesn’t relapse."

Kandis Spann similarly told the judge, at times through tears, that Lippert said she could help get David Spann the treatment she believed he needed. However, the type of program and what was required for Spann's admission were matters disputed by several witnesses.

"This was my first experience with the justice system and a bail agency, and I thought we were on a team," Kandis Spann said.

Both Kandis and Bill Spann expressed concern about the plan to return David Spann to his home, Bill telling Lippert that David Spann was known to conceal methamphetamine there and could likely find ways to obtain more.

But during the parking lot conversation and subsequent text messages, the relatives and Lippert ultimately agreed to get Spann out of jail, search his home for drugs and alcohol, drug test him twice a week and monitor his location with a GPS ankle bracelet.

Lippert and several of her employees and colleagues testified during the hearing that the plan collapsed almost immediately.

In the first week Spann was free on bail, Lippert and several of Spann's relatives exchanged frequent text messages.

Kandis Spann repeatedly asked by text about how long it would be for David Spann to get a bed in a rehab facility.

"She said it was just a few days," Kandis Spann testified, adding later in testimony that "it was Melissa that was handling everything. …This was the first time for me so I thought this was just a normal protocol, a normal thing."

But the communication Kandis Spann said she had with Lippert dwindled as time wore on. And the sense of camaraderie soon faded as communication grew infrequent, David Spann refused to complete drug testing or have his home searched, and Lippert’s team started to consider their options.

'She wanted her old husband back'

Lippert said she did all she could to get David Spann into rehabilitation but all the facilities she contacted were full. She named a few facilities during testimony, but said she had contacted several more.

Lippert told the judge that her promise to the Spann family to make David her "project" was sincere and spoke to the meaning of that term.

"That I would do everything in my power to make sure that he gets clean and back on the right track so he can get his family back together as that was his primary goal," Lippert said. "And I understood that from Kandis too, that she wanted her old husband back."

She said she had helped other clients get into treatment programs and when the family communicated that was their hope, she began "Googling rehab centers in the desert."

Her testimony, however, revealed that she quickly grew impatient with Spann and the sometimes competing expectations of his relatives. During questioning, Lippert interchangeably said her primary goal was "to keep Kandis and the children safe" and keep "[David Spann] in compliance," while saying that "everyone was not rowing in the same boat."

Kandis Spann, meanwhile, maintained that her priority was to get David Spann treatment, when texts about his compliance with the bail agreement came from Lippert, she remembered texting: "That’s not good. When does rehab start?"

David Spann’s father, William Joseph Spann, his brother, Bill, and Kandis Spann all echoed in testimony that they thought Lippert was going to facilitate David Spann’s admission to some sort of substance abuse program and attempt to keep him clean in the interim.

"He needed an inpatient rehabilitation," Kandis Spann testified. "She had told us that she was able to help him."

"She told me she would have an agent go there search his entire house and discard of any drugs and alcohol," Willam Spann testified.

"I thought he needed some kind of interventional treatment," Joseph Spann testified. "I thought that with the safeguards Ms. Lippert put in place, I thought that would accomplish what was best for my son."

More: Family of David Spann, man killed by bounty hunter, sues Palm Springs, police, bail agents

Those promises or conditions of the agreement, even if verbal, were often returned to during testimony.

California Department of Insurance Investigator Brian FitzGerald questioned Lippert during the hearing about them, their relationship to the bail contract and her decision to send a bounty hunter to apprehend Spann.

"Additional bail conditions are pretty much up to me to decide when it is time to take him back into custody," Lippert testified.

FitzGerald, however, contended that the promises established a special relationship in which Spann and his relatives depended on Lippert for his continued freedom from incarceration, the drug tests that were never completed and his potential admission into a treatment facility.

California Department of Insurance Investigator James Cornell testified that Lippert's verbal commitments established a "duty to care" for the Spann family.

"I believe she did by the nature of her promises or implied promises to the family," Cornell testified.

An apprehension ordered in 'impatience and haste'

Lippert testified that she had never met David Spann in person, and only spoke with him over the phone. Testimony regularly returned to the chain of employment and contracting between Lippert and those who work for and with her to administer bail bond agreements.

It was Lippert's ex-husband, a bail agent named Fausto Atilano Jr., who signed the paperwork releasing Spann from jail. Paul Radzwillowicz, another bail agent who is also Lippert's fiance and employee, drove Spann home from jail.

Jeff Guiso, a brother of a woman who does Lippert's bookkeeping, provided the GPS monitor and attempted to administer a drug test on Spann but never succeeded. And another of her agents sent paperwork to Navarro to order Spann's apprehension.

Who among them should be held responsible for illegally sending a convicted felon to arrest Spann was a central point of contention in the hearing.

FitzGerald asserted that Lippert, as the bail agent who held legal custody of Spann, was ultimately responsible. He argued Lippert hastily decided to return Spann to jail after he had been non-compliant for weeks and she did so at a time and in a way that put everyone involved at risk.

"I don’t think it had to be a surrender that evening," FitzGerald told the judge during his closing remarks. "I believe it was done in impatience and haste."

In other words, FitzGerald said, Lippert agreed to have Navarro send a team to apprehend Spann from inside his gated community late at night despite other options: "It might have been done in a public place or in [Lippert's] office."

He further questioned whether Spann could have been apprehended at the court earlier the day prior, where Spann had to appear for a child custody hearing.

Kandis Spann testified that she had returned from a trip out of state with the children the day before the hearing and that she had been in contact with Lippert, who had said she was going to send one of her employees to the hearing.

By the time of the hearing, Spann’s monitoring device had been non-operational for several days, he had repeatedly refused to comply with drug testing and would not permit Lippert’s employees to search his home for drugs.

Kandis Spann testified about her last interaction with her estranged fiance. They were both at the court, exchanging frustrated and emotional words about the dysfunctional state of affairs. She remembered they both wept and he left. She said she remembered calling him and "just telling him that I love him and I want to help him." Less than 24 hours later, he was shot dead.

FitzGerald asked Lippert why she didn’t attempt to apprehend Spann while he was at the family court hearing or notify a deputy at the courthouse to do so, citing his non-compliance with the bail agreement. Lippert, whose business is based in Temecula, testified that none of her employees were available to be sent to the court.

But by that evening, Lippert had resolved to apprehend Spann, and coordinated the effort without the knowledge of any of Spann's relatives.

FitzGerald asked Lippert why she didn't tell Navarro to wait until the morning of April 23 to attempt to apprehend Spann by asking him to meet at a safe location.

He presented a text message said to have been exchanged between Lippert and Navarro, who owns and operates his own bail agency, soon before the apprehension, in which she said if he didn't have someone who could go to Palm Springs, "we can wait until tomorrow."

Rob Dick, a bail agent, bounty hunter and industry educator, testified for the department that Lippert had not done her due diligence when establishing by text message that Navarro had bounty hunters working for him who were properly trained and had no felony convictions.

"To make sure you’re not in violation, you have to certify that that person is legally able to do the work," Dick testified.

Dick described the transfer of Lippert's power of arrest to Navarro as "passing a baton" between the bail agent, who has legal custody of the bailee, and "someone they authorize in writing."

Dick took issue with how Lippert provided the power of arrest to Navarro, who ultimately passed it on to Herrera. But even if she had done the paperwork properly, Dick said, it did not exempt her from liability.

"I don't believe the bail agent is ever relieved of responsibility," said Dick, adding later, "If you have the power, it’s your shoes. ... And when you pass the power, well they better have clean shoes too."

Several witnesses were questioned about messages exchanged between Lippert and Navarro coordinating Spann’s apprehension. The messages were only partially read by FitzGerald during testimony, but provided new details about the botched apprehension.

"Are your guys licensed and experienced?" Lippert texted Navarro.

“Yes," Navarro is said to have responded.

"All weapons permits on point," he texted at another time in the exchange.

Warren Ellis, Lippert’s attorney, said that the texts proved Herrera had successfully concealed his criminal history from both Navarro and Lippert. He asked several witnesses if there was a database that bail agents can use to determine whether bounty hunters — who do not have to be licensed — have been convicted of felonies.

"Not that I'm aware of," said Otto Carchi, a police officer in Nevada who also does bounty hunting work for Lippert.

There is no established protocol with the Department of Insurance for bail agents to do background checks on the bounty hunters they hire. Many public agencies and private companies, however, require background checks when hiring employees and commercial background check services are available.

Carchi testified that the texts show Lippert was being cautious and attempting to gather all the necessary information from Navarro about the team he was sending.

FitzGerald, however, disagreed. It was only after the shooting that Lippert or Navarro attempted to get copies of Herrera’s credentials and other paperwork, he said.

Questions on background checks

Bounty hunters are not licensed, and thereby unregulated, in the state. The Desert Sun’s reporting on Spann’s shooting death and Herrera’s criminal case have prompted the California Legislature to consider requiring bounty hunters to be licensed by the Department of Insurance, and a bill is now pending before lawmakers.

Several bail professionals, including Lippert, Dick and Carchi, testified that the absence of a licensing requirement created substantial challenges to doing background checks for the bounty hunters they hire.

Dick said he often asks for other permits from bounty hunters to prove to him they are not felons, like certain security guard licenses or concealed carry permits that require background checks.

"Any of those things can validate 100% that you’re not a felon," Dick said.

But Lippert asserted she believed she did everything she could and was trusting that Navarro had properly vetted his agents. "I would have had no way of really finding out other than having law enforcement run a background check," Lippert said.

Ellis similarly stated that the unregulated nature of bounty hunting in California prevented his client from being able to check Herrera's criminal history.

He said that bail fugitive recovery persons "should be regulated" but that they currently aren't. "And it leaves a lot of ambiguity about what is required."

FitzGerald, however, said that this lack of state regulation did not release Lippert from the liability of Spann’s death.

FitzGerald urged the judge to consider the decision to surrender his bond in light of the promises Lippert made to the family to help Spann receive treatment, a representation that she could help but in reality couldn't. And when she ultimately lost patience, he said, she triggered a "series of unfortunate events."

"In the public interest, if you're going to make a representation to people, if you're gonna do that, you're gonna have to follow through," FitzGerald said.

He closed the department's case urging the judge to consider not just Lippert's ability to do future bail work professionally and safely in light of the killing, but, also, "so that she is accountable to David."

Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Bail agent, widow testify about Palm Springs shooting by bounty hunter