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Half of 19th JDC approved ankle monitor companies have been subpoenaed for violation data

BATON ROUGE — Four of the eight ankle monitoring companies approved to work with the 19th Judicial District Court have been subpoenaed by prosecutors.

Attorney General Liz Murrill weighed in on recent ankle monitor issues at the 19 JDC, with her concerns centered on the re-arrest of State Police Lt. James Jefferson for allegedly violating the conditions of his ankle monitor more than a dozen times.

"I do have concerns about the information that we have suggesting that he is regularly violating his protection order and the restrictions on his movement, and not being reported by the electronic monitoring company," Murrill said.

A protective order barred Jefferson from going within 100 yards of his wife or her home and workplace. But the attorney general's office said monitoring company DTS never entered those addresses into its system.

"Either the monitoring system is being tampered with or the company was not reporting the violations," Murrill said. "I will continue to seek legislation that addresses that problem."

Murrill also raised concerns about how monitoring companies are selected in the first place.

"I was appalled, quite frankly, to find out that in East Baton Rouge Parish and the 19 JDC that a defendant can choose who his ankle monitoring company is going to be," she said. "That strikes me as shocking."

The WBRZ Investigative Unit spoke to Chief Judge Don Johnson about how monitoring companies are selected.

"We simply say 'I'm permitting this person to be monitored' and that triggers notification to pre-trial, that triggers notification to the warden at the jail, that anyone who is on our approved list can supervise that individual," Johnson said. 

Johnson also spoke about why violations may not be reaching the proper offices. District Attorney Hillar Moore is currently in a legal battle with one monitoring company after discovering that 25-year-old Ashtin Ursin had more than 1,000 violations, none of which were relayed to Moore's office.

"I have heard of that, but if the computer that the vendors uses is tied to a computer in this building, then I'm concerned about why that data is not transmitting because in order to get approved, your computer has to be connected to a computer that we have," Johnson said.

On Wednesday, a judge granted Murrill's request to hold Jefferson without bond.

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