Ankle monitoring oversight questioned after bond violation case

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Questions about Louisiana’s private ankle-monitoring companies are back in the spotlight.

It comes after the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office filed a motion this week to revoke bond for a man who allegedly violated monitoring orders and other requirements.

Prosecutors want a judge to revoke Marcus Washington’s bond after court filings say he violated his conditions when he was arrested in Livingston Parish on drug and gun charges while on ankle monitoring. Washington is accused of firing a gun inside a classroom at a local high school. A judge placed him on house arrest.

The case has renewed attention on Louisiana’s private ankle-monitoring companies.

Monitoring companies lack regulation

“The ankle monitoring companies have never had any regulation about what they can do, what they’re supposed to do,” said District Attorney Sam D’Aquilla, who represents East and West Feliciana.

D’Aquilla said that lack of oversight gained new attention after a separate case where a man violated a stay-away order, killed his wife, then killed himself. In that case, two ankle-monitoring workers were charged and accused of not alerting police when the monitor kept going off. The Louisiana Supreme Court said they can be criminally prosecuted.

“The company is supposed to monitor where they are at any given time,” D’Aquilla said.

Device switched from GPS to phone monitoring

In Washington’s case, the filing says the monitoring agency, Magnolia, reported a charging issue April 7. His monitoring was changed from an ankle GPS device to phone monitoring.

Two days later, prosecutors say his location services were turned off and he was stopped in Livingston Parish, where deputies say they found marijuana, illegal pills and a handgun.

“So that’s been the whole problem all along. It’s like the Wild Wild West. Put an ankle monitor on them, an ankle monitor company doesn’t notify the judge or anybody,” D’Aquilla said.

D’Aquilla said despite legislation combating violation issues, private monitoring companies are not obligated to notify anyone of violations.

“They’re in direct violation of their bond obligation, and they need to be in jail. So we haven’t been doing that,” he said.

The state also noted investigators looked at possible ties to the Mall of Louisiana shooting with Washington, but said a preliminary phone analysis did not put his device near the mall at the time.

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