Rulings

The past week has been rather tough. Most of the week was spent in worry about one particular Hearing that occurred on Thursday. The hearing was what basically amounts to a preliminary hearing for folks that Violate their Parole or Probation. The subject of the hearing was an Offender that committed a murder back before I was born. He was Paroled and placed on Electronic Monitoring (EM). From day one you can tell the Offenders that are and are not going to complete the Electronic Monitoring program. Usually they call themselves out with, "I'll be the best EM participant you've ever seen."

Anyway this particular Offender made the above statement and I went ahead and gave him a stern warning about violating his schedule. A month later he was in jail for violating the schedule ten times. In the weeks leading up to the hearing on Thursday he vehemently denied any wrong doing.

I received phone calls from multiple family members, friends, and employers stating that the Offender would never do such a thing. All very standard tactics. Then he decided to go personal. On several occasions, this offender told me that he knew my father (also nothing new, my father being the High Sheriff lots of people knew him) and that if he was still here the warrant would never have been written, because my father would have vouched for him. I came about this close to losing it in a way that even I have not experienced. I quickly regained control and ushered him out the door. I spent the next twenty minutes trying to cool off before seeing the next offender.

The next day I received a call from the offender notifying me that he had a new additional phone line and that I needed to move the EM equipment to the new phone line. I promptly tell him no, because there was nothing wrong with the old line. Five minutes later my Supervisor stops by my desks and tells me to go out there and move the equipment, she having gotten a phone call from the offender.

The week leading up to the Hearing this Offender told me about the high priced attorney that his family hired for him, the sitting US Senator, and the twenty something witnesses that were going to vouch for him and explain the defaults in the equipment at the Hearing. Then he so graciously gave me the opportunity to call off the hearing and withdraw the warrant. This time it was hard for me not to laugh in his face. I gave him the list of reasons that that could not be done and told him that I would see him at the hearing.

Thursday finally came (as they usually do). The Hearing Officer arrived and the hearing began. I gave my thirty minute speech about the Offender, why he is on Parole, the particulars of the case, the violations, all the evidence in the case, and a detailed explanation of how the EM equipment was set up and how nothing was wrong with the equipment. I answer every question the Attorney and the Hearing Officer had and felt really good about how the Hearing was going. Then the Hearing Officer announces that he has enough information to make a ruling.

It was an interesting feeling, being thrown under a bus while on the record.

Basically, after hearing all the evidence and testimony the Hearing Officer ruled that the Electronic Monitoring equipment must have been faulty, that the Agent (me) should have know that the equipment was faulty, and that it was a good thing that the Agent corrected the problem (i.e. the day I went out there and moved the equipment to the new phone line). However, if any more violations occur that the offender is to go straight to the Parole Board. The Offender then asks to be transferred to a new agent. The Hearing Officer denies the request and ended the hearing.

I force myself to smile as the family members filed by and "thanked" me for being honest during the hearing and escort them out of the Hearing area. Upon my return the Offender stopped me before I got back into the hearing room to finish the paperwork and asked if he can come off of EM today. I tell him no, because he still had three weeks to go before he was scheduled to come off of EM. Then he started whining about everything that I had put him through. I pulled him back into the hearing room and tell him to repeat his request before his Attorney and the Hearing Officer. He does so and I explain why he cannot come off the EM program. The Hearing Officer then denies his request and then reinterated his "Stern Warning" from his ruling. The paperwork was completed and I ushered the Offender out the door advising him to report this week.

In relaying the story to Casey, it was brought to my attention that the "Stern Warning" was hollow. In the ruling given by the Hearing Officer the Offender was given free reign to violate his EM whenever he wants, because now all he has to say is the equipment was "faulty".

However, despite this I will act as if this is day one of his case. When he violates his schedule I will treat it as such and do my duty.

Semper Fi Deus

Goose