Restitution?

[Kingkerry]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Hi, I met a woman about a year ago and we became friends and we would hang out, watch movies, and eat together. She told me at the time she had Breast Cancer and Lupus. She wasn't making much money and I would provide on average about $20 / week for medications to help her with this condition.

Well, back in February she was arrested for Fraud Possession of a Control Substance/Prescriptions and she made up a story to get me to bail her out.
I contacted a bondsman and the bailbond was $10,000 and bailed her out.

It was a few days before she was on the run from the law. I was only about 21 days away from having to owe $10,000 and the stress was unbearable until she was caught. I was wondering is it possible to write the parole board and have her pay me restitution after shes out on parole? The amount with the bondsman alone is $1930 and if yo factor in $20/ week for prescription that comes out to be around $800 or so and the emotional distress should be at least around $2500 - $3000 for all the agony she put me through of possibly losing such a large sum of money and depression.

 

[CavemanLawyer]

There no chance of you getting any restitution directly as a result of the criminal proceedings. Only a victim of the actual crime can get restitution. If you were to get any compensation from her at all it would have to be in the form of a civil suit.

I seriously doubt you could get the bail money back from her in a civil suit since there's really nothing contractual about it, you just paid her bail as what is essentially a gift. Also the amount that you paid would not have been returned to you either way, so you knew you were paying that money just to get her out of jail, which is what happened. The fact that you, and the bonding company, were on the hook for alot more doesn't mean you have damages. Emotional distress and things like that require that the person inflicted that distress intentionally. The argument would be that she violated her bond to cause you stress and that doesn't make sense since she obviously ran for other reasons, namely to avoid her charges.

As far as medical expenses, it still sounds like a gift unless there was some sort of understanding that she'd have to pay it back at some point.