Is It Legal to Rent a Hotel Room for Someone with a Felony Warrant

My question involves criminal law for the state of: COLORADO
I was approached by some Bail Bonds men that search for people that have skipped out on bail. And they said that if I do not help them get somebody with a felony warrant that they are looking for they will go to the DA and present evidence that I have been renting a hotel room under my name and debit card for this person. I did not know this person had a felony warrant he is my friend and he had not told me any of that. They are trying to get me to tell them where he is and what room he is in. I have not bought a hotel room for him for about a month now and I had no idea. They also wouldn't really be able to prove that I knew about his felony warrant I was wondering if I could get in trouble for renting a room for my friend even though I did not know that he had this issue

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Quoting Andres1029

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My question involves criminal law for the state of: COLORADO
I was approached by some Bail Bonds men that search for people that have skipped out on bail. And they said that if I do not help them get somebody with a felony warrant that they are looking for they will go to the DA and present evidence that I have been renting a hotel room under my name and debit card for this person. I did not know this person had a felony warrant he is my friend and he had not told me any of that. They are trying to get me to tell them where he is and what room he is in. I have not bought a hotel room for him for about a month now and I had no idea. They also wouldn't really be able to prove that I knew about his felony warrant I was wondering if I could get in trouble for renting a room for my friend even though I did not know that he had this issue

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Bail bondsmen are not law enforcement. They cannot go to the DA to try to have you arrested. What they can and will do is lie through their teeth to convince you to give them the information that they want. Do not fall for that.

However, were the police to ask you the same questions, that would be an entirely different story.

Ok so if they cant do that, would it be illegal to rent a motel room for a friend using ur id and debit card? Not knowing he has this felony warrant?

No, there is nothing wrong with paying for someone's room if you don't know they are wanted.

You do not know your friend as well as you think you do. Your friend is not looking out for you. If drugs or other contraband were found in a room you paid for. It could put you in a bad situation. Do not trust your friend to be honest with you.

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Quoting llworking

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Bail bondsmen are not law enforcement. They cannot go to the DA to try to have you arrested.

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Sure they can. Anyone in Colorado may contact the appropriate DAs office and make a complaint regarding alleged criminal activity. You don’t have to be a cop to do that.

The issue is whether the OP has any legal obligation to tell the bailbondsperson where the defendant is now located. The answer to that is no. There is no statute in Colorado that penalizes a person for not disclosing information to a bailbondsperson. A person may be charged in Colorado with obstruction of justice if he or she hinders a peace officer in performing his/her duties and refusing to tell a peace officer that information might draw an obstruction charge. But bailbondspersons are not included within the definition of a peace officer.

As to the question of whether it is illegal to rent a hotel room for a wanted person, if you do that knowing the person is wanted in order to aid that person in evading the police that makes you guilty of being an accessory in Colorado. Thus, now that the OP knows the guy is wanted on a felony he or she would be well advised not to render assistance to him/her. After all, if the bailbondsperson is seeking to track this person down that almost certainly means there is also a warrant out for his arrest and that the police are looking for him too.

When TM says "well advised" he means it opens the abetter up to a possible criminal charge himself. Now he is assisting someone who has committed a felony from apprehension. That's called being an accessory in Colorado law.

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Quoting Taxing Matters

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Sure they can. Anyone in Colorado may contact the appropriate DAs office and make a complaint regarding alleged criminal activity. You don’t have to be a cop to do that.

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Ok yes, any civilian can make a complaint to the DA. A complaint from a bail bondsperson however is going to be given no more importance than a complaint from any other civilian. The point I was trying to get across to the OP is that the threat was pretty toothless.

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Quoting llworking

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Ok yes, any civilian can make a complaint to the DA. A complaint from a bail bondsperson however is going to be given no more importance than a complaint from any other civilian.

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I agree that a complaint submitted by a bondsperson is not likely to be considered more important than one made by anyone else outside law enforcement. Indeed, even when coming from law enforcement, about the only real edge law enforcement has is that the DA will be more willing to spend extra time examining what law enforcement presents and work with law enforcement to help build the case. But in the end, the DA must evaluate all cases on a standard of whether it is something on which the DA could win conviction at trial.

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Quoting llworking

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The point I was trying to get across to the OP is that the threat was pretty toothless.

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But the reason that the threat was not very strong had not much to do with the fact that the bondsperson is not law enforcement and much more to do with the fact that the DA has to prove that the OP was knowingly trying to conceal the OP from law enforcement by paying for the hotel, something that is going to be really hard to do absent something more than just proof of payment of the hotel bill. That’s what I was getting at.