State House Insider Paid $129K & Runs Side Hustles as Bail Bondsman & Prison Interpreter

State House Insider Paid $129K & Runs Side Hustles as Bail Bondsman & Prison Interpreter

Business is good for Luis Colon. Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi’s Director of Constituent Services earns $129,000 a year for the high-ranking State House position, but make no mistake about it, his outside businesses in the courts and the prisons are fruitful too.

Besides his full-time position at the State House, Colon is also a registered bondsman and can be found in the prisons as an interpreter — all these different vocations at the same time.

He is also the chairman of the West Warwick School Committee.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

 

Investigation - 94% Pay Increase in a Decade at the State House

A GoLocal investigation has reviewed hundreds of bail documents and the corresponding lien document filings tied to the bail guarantees and uncovered that Colon, while a top staffer at the Rhode Island State House, has been a prolific bail bondsman. Colon says he does little bail work today.

Colon’s practice as a bail bondsman is under the same registration as Rudolph Procaccianti, Bonnie Briggs, Neil Procaccianti, and Lea Czerwien, but his entries for bail filings are under his name — there are hundreds of them.

On March 18, 2025, Colon and the others were approved for another year by Superior Court Chief Justice Alice Gibney.

Colon has provided bail to hundreds of accused criminals — the clients of some of the most politically connected lawyers — all while working his state job. And during the past ten years at the State House, he has been promoted repeatedly, and his salary has jumped 94%.

According to state personnel records dating back to 2014, Colon made $54,000 a year as a legislative assistant working for then-Speaker of the House Gordon Fox. Before joining the legislative staff at the State House, Colon worked for former Speaker of the House Bill Murphy in his law office. Colon said he has been at the State House for 17 or 18 years and bail filings track his bondman's work as far back as 2007.

And over the past decade, Colon has seen promotions and major pay increases. In 2016, under then-Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, his salary increased to over $80,000 a year.

But the major salary increases have taken place under Shekarchi’s tenure. In the most recently reported year, 2024, Colon’s salary jumped to $129,000 as Director of Constituent Services. 

And, Colon has been a supporter of Shekarchi. Colon has made eight donations to Shekarchi, totalling $1,200.

 

 

 

 

No RI Ethics Commission Financial Disclosure for Colon in Years

High-level state appointees and elected officials are required to annually submit a disclosure of their income sources and business interests to the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.

For Colon, he disclosed his bail bondman business interest in 2017 and 2018, but since then, he has not reported it on his financial disclosure forms despite providing bail services to dozens and dozens of individuals over the past five years.

For 2024, Colon was required to submit his financial disclosure form by April 25, 2025, but there is no record of the filing according to the Ethics Commission’s website.

GoLocal raised with Shekarchi that, through 2019, Colon disclosed he was a bail bondsman on his annual Ethics Financial Disclosure filing, but since 2019, he has not disclosed his bail bondsman work on the disclosure form. And further, Colon didn't disclose the interpreting business on the Ethics Financial Disclosure forms at any time. 

“I would say that he, first of all, I would tell you it's the very first I've heard of this, that this is not disclosed, [and] that the ethics commission is more than capable of making their own decision,” said Shekarchi.

“I guess if he did not comply with the ethics report, he should comply. Everybody should comply. And I will instruct him to do so, and I'm sure that if you run an article about it, the Ethics Commission will begin some kind of a review process," said Shekarchi.

Shekarchi said, “It's not my job to defend him in any kind of an action with the Ethics Commission.”

 

 

Colon said he never did any of the bail or interpreting work over the years on state time. He claims did the non-state work early in the morning, at lunch or after work or used vacation or personal time.

Regarding bail work, Colon said he rarely does it, but GoLocal found hundreds of filings of bail/lien filings under Colon’s name.

The documents mirror Colon’s tenure as an employee of the General Assembly, but the number of bail filings has decreased in recent years according to GoLocal's review.

Regarding bail work, Colon said that today, “I might be lucky to make a couple of grand at the end of the year. It's really to keep me relevant in that arena.”

He said on bail that he does not make much money — just a few thousand a year now.

“Occasionally, if an attorney decides to use me as an interpreter, then I'm able to, you know, sign into the prison. I'm able to come in as an interpreter I get an hourly rate as an interpreter and then and that's it you know but most of those times it's very very early at eight o'clock  [in the morning]  you go to the prison or at 430 PM or you take a lunch,” said Colon.

Shekarchi said, "So my understanding, he's been here for 18 or 19 years and his outside employment has explained to me, as I understand it, first of all, I will tell you that his work has been good, I've never heard him complain about his work." 

"Second of all, the overwhelming majority of all [Colon's] work happens after hours. Both the bail bondsman happens after hours, and the interpreter happens after hours. The very rare occasions or few occasions that happens during the business day. And there are no conflicts with state house work. He discharges vacation time or personal time. And he goes to sign a piece of paper at the court or the prison or somewhere, and he comes back. They're very short visits, that's my understanding of it," added Shekarchi.

 

 

Prison Interpreter Too

Two weeks ago, Colon and criminal defense attorney Alfred Medici signed in to visit a prisoner named “Lorenzo”  at the intake center at the Adult Correctional Institute.

Colon did not use his State House office address or his bail bondman address; instead, he used the address of 127 Dorrance Street — a building that is the home to former Speaker Murphy’s office address — and a number of other attorneys.

According to a Murphy’s staffer, Colon has not worked in that office in years.

“Obviously, I would never risk myself or the speaker's reputation on, you know. Taking any chances, obviously, of doing anything wrong, you know.  If I go to the prison to interpret it's after work hours or I'll take a lunch break or whatever,” said Colon.

“You might go through a spree where you do two or three or four, like last week I did, you know, four,” said Colon.

In a recent visit to the intake center, Colon signed in using 127 Dorrance Street as his legal address for his interpreting business. When asked if he has an office at the location, he said he did not, but always used that address.

“It's first and foremost, it's the most important job that I have. And then everything else is secondary. If I have time to do those things, great. If I don't, then they won't get done. If I cannot take a client because I'm doing something at work, then I will not take it,” said Colon.

The Department of Corrections refused to provide additional sign-in sheets to GoLocal for review.

A Corrections spokesperson wrote in an email, “The response I received was that the documents you are referring to are the sign-in sheets, which are located at the reception desk. They are not publicly accessible for viewing pleasure, and they are for logging people into the facility. They are RIDOC’s official documents.”