Nashville Bondsman Writing Bonds While Ignoring Court Orders, Lying Under Oath, & Dodging Personal Debt

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Tanya Mayhew (legally Tanya Stafford) is well known in the Nashville area, both for when she ripped a grill(and a tooth) from an inmates mouth – costing the city $95,000) and for working for Bail-U-Out Bonding for quite a few years, where her job is to make sure her clients make it to court when the judge tells them to be there, and follows directions given by the judge on their case – otherwise she’s responsible if they don’t show up for their court date.

[Note that in this article Tanya is referred to as Tanya Lawrence, Tanya Mayhew, Tanya Mayhew-Lawrence, & Tanya Stafford, as the lawsuits are in all of her names. They are used interchangeably depending on the lawsuit discussed.]

However, following the orders that judges give is not a concept that Tanya, personally, has a history of complying with. We’ll only briefly touch on the fact that she ignored TCA 40.11.318(b) when she recently used a bounty hunter that was not only a felon, but against a local judge’s direct orders to never use this person in that capacity. She was arrested in that incident. She said (video at end of article) that “The people that were with me.. they’re great people, I couldn’t have better charge partners“. The people with her include the person she used illegally in the linked incident.

After we ran the above story three weeks ago, our inboxes filled with comments and complaints on Bail-U-Out Bonding, and specifically how Tanya Mayhew-Lawrence operated in her role there. In our follow-up investigation of this bail bondsman, it was apparent that while she was earning money, she certainly wasn’t living up to her own financial obligations, and hadn’t for the past several years. The civil judgments against her alone are over $45,000 (non-medical).

How can a bail bondsman, who quite often takes payments on bonds, expect for anyone to pay them properly when they refuse to honor their own debt obligations?

Before we continue, it’s important to note that this is NOT just about DEBT. We all have debt. this is about actively avoiding the processes of the court, not showing up for court dates, refusing to sign for service on court documents, refusing to honor agreements with the court, and most importantly, providing knowingly false information on court documents where we signed under oath and the penalty of perjury.

She is not alone in the actively ignoring court orders (documents below) activities. Both her & her boss, and owner of Bail-U-Out Bonding, Vincent Dixie have refused to respond to or follow the orders of the court in several civil executions & garnishments against Tanya Mayhew-Lawrence. Vincent Dixie is currently running for a state house district 54 seat in Tennessee.

Our investigation shows that Tanya Mayhew has over $45,000 in personal civil judgments against her in Nashville, the majority of which she refuses to pay. These range from an auto loan, eviction proceedings, a city traffic ticket, various credit cards and credit lines. We have excluded any medical debts from these totals.

Not only does she refuse to pay them, but she tells the courts that she doesn’t earn any money as a bail bondsman – literally $0. In a review of several hundred obtained documents, we were able to ascertain the following pattern of behavior by Tanya to avoid paying her debts, and to not only avoid the court process, but also lying on court documents the court in the process, all clearly documented:

  1. Obtains line of credit, uses it, and doesn’t pay the balance, and is served with a civil suit for the amount she owes (ranging from $1K-5K on average).
  2. Sometimes shows up to court, sometimes doesn’t and default judgement is entered against her.
  3. Doesn’t make any payments on the judgment, so the court issues a wage garnishment.
  4. Garnishment is served on Bail-U-Out Bonding, where the owner Vincent Dixie or herself signs (or occasionally refuses to sign) as legally served withe notice to garnish her wages.
  5. She (or mgmt of the company) replies back that she receives no regular wages, is not a salary employee, and that since she is an independent contractor (10-99), that her wages cannot be garnished.
  6. The court replies back that 10-99 employees CAN be garnished, and issues a legal notice for her wages or other 1099 income for up to 180 days. They still do not comply with this order fully.
  7. She files a slow-pay motion in the court, STATING UNDER OATH AND PENALTY OF PERJURY, that she makes $0 per month, yet pays $2300 in expenses every month.
  8. A few months go by with no monies paid to the court, so they issue another garnishment order (wage or non-wage), which is legally served upon Bail-U-Out Bonding, except this time, they simply refuse to reply to the order. This part is often repeated time after time, some of them signed by Vincent Dixie, owner, some refused process, and others appear to be signed by the Tanya herself.
  9. Several cases are in the above repeat-cycle as of time of this publication – June 2018, and have been for years.

So let’s look at the facts / documents that support the above. We’ll take one of the most recently served court orders, less than a month ago, in Mariner Finance v Tanya Lawrence. Here’s the reply from Bail-U-Out Bonding that says they won’t garnish her wages because she’s a 10-99 employee. Don’t let the 2015 date fool you – this has been in the repeat-cycle above for several years now.

Of course, then the court order claps back with a signed NON-WAGE order that states the officer is to take the non-wage property from her:

“Any/all compensation or other income reportable on a 1099 due to Tanya Lawrence for 180 days in satisfaction of judgment.”

So what’s 2015 have to do with 2018? Three years later, and she and Bail-U-Out Bonding are still in defiance of the orders. Here’s one that was just served in May of 2018:

In addition to replying that her wages aren’t eligible to be garnished, there are a half dozen that were served and ignored, including some signed by Vincent Dixie, owner of Bail-U-Out Bonding, and who is currently running for State House District 54 as a candidate. This one he signed the notice as being served, and has refused to respond to the courts, since March of 2018:

Plenty of examples also where the company refused to sign to be served at all:

Another example of how Tanya Mayhew-Lawrence avoids payments once the court eventually gets someone to actually process her earnings, is to file a slow pay motion, citing she has zero income, yet spends over $2300 a month and is actively employed. Here’s a document signed under oath, under penalty of perjury, to a Nashville Court:

Clearly, you can’t have $2300 of monthly expenses, support 2 children, and have a $0 income, and claim you’re employed by Bail-U-Out Bonding. Mayhew didn’t claim any of the money she earned as a bondsman.

How long will the Davidson County Courts keep letting Tanya Mayhew write bonds, while defaulting on her own personal debts, refusing to comply with court orders, and lying in court documents? Only time will tell, but so far, it’s years in, and is actively continuing the cycle.

In addition to all of the civil lawsuits currently afflicting Tanya Mayhew, she is also in the middle of a divorce proceeding from her husband, Charles Darrell Stafford who is housed in the TDOC at the Northwest Correctional Complex until 2022.

This became relevant, because according to her incarcerated husband’s response to the divorce filing, he states she is gainfully employed, is able to afford a divorce lawyer (which we confirmed). He also states that he was on parole when they met in 2013, and shortly after was arrested for a parole violation and she promised to “ride this out with me”, he says. The following year, in 2014, the two married while he was incarcerated at NWCX. One month later, he alleges she began “exposing herself sexually” a promotion for Bail-U-Out Bonding on social media. His affidavit also details another time that she failed to appear in criminal court to assist in prosecution of a case.

In case you’re wondering just how much a bondsman makes in Nashville, here’s how it generally breaks down:

If an inmate’s bond is $20,000 as an example, They would pay $2,000 + a $37 fee, for a total of $2,037 to the bondsman. The bondman sends $12 to the state off the top, leaving them with $2,025. The average split between bondsman/company in Nashville is around 40/60 – so the bondman’s cut would be $810 and the company would take $1215. Of the bondsman’s $810, $81 would be held in escrow (10%) for future liability, and the bondsman would walk away with $729 for posting a $20,000 bond in Davidson County.

The number of bonds made in a month on average is certainly more than $0, which is what Mayhew swore to in the above court documents, under perjury, as her income.

Below is the video Mayhew posted on social media regarding her arrest earlier this month, that we referenced earlier in the story:

 

 

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