A Tallahassee lawyer has filed a federal suit claiming GPS monitoring systems used by Leon County pretrial release and probation programs to track individuals are faulty and result in unintended violations.
In a March 17 filing in U.S. District Court, criminal defense attorney Josh Zelman claims his client Christopher Jensen was “falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted” because of the faulty GPS system used in the Leon County Court system.
The suit names GPS service provider Sentinel Offender Services, Leon County Pretrial Release Director Wanda Hunter-Donaldson and Leon County Office of Intervention and Detention Alternatives employee Eduard Rodriguez as defendants.
Sentinel has been named in dozens of lawsuits on similar claims in other states.
The suit is seeking $75,000 in damages and compensation, as well as unspecified damages, for Jensen’s wrongful incarceration from April 2013 to December 2013 after he was arrested based on data from the GPS monitor that he violated an injunction to refrain from contact with the victim related to his probation.
It claims Jensen’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated.
He was under a judge’s orders to refrain from contact with his ex-wife after he was arrested in 2005 for violating a civil injunction.
Leon County and the Sentinel provided the State Attorney’s Office documentation of his whereabouts while he was being monitored by GPS.
Those records showed he had violated the terms of his injunction and probation by driving by a Wakulla school listed as an “exclusion zone.”
He was charged with aggravated stalking and incarcerated at the Wakulla County Jail and then subsequently in Leon County.
The stalking charges were dropped after two sets of records obtained by Zelman and the State Attorney’s Office showed a discrepancy in his whereabouts.
Zelman said Sentinel’s GPS system put his client –and anyone else who is ordered to wear one – into a precarious position where they could falsely be accused of violating their probation.
“I’m sure here are people who have violated,” Zelman said, “but if the violation is based on this GPS data and there’s no other data, I would make the argument that the data was faulty.”
“We have a feeling this is the tip of the iceberg,” he added.
Assistant Leon County Attorney LaShawn Riggans said her office has not been served with the lawsuit and she would like to wait until that happens before commenting.
The suit claims, “Hunter-Donaldson and Sentinel knew, and have known for years, that Sentinel’s GPS equipment was faulty, out-of-date and failed to accurately monitor individuals released on pretrial GPS supervision.”
The suit cites eight claims including:
- Constitutional deprivation
- False arrest allegations against Leon County and Sentinel and Hunter-Donaldson and Rodriguez
- A claim of false imprisonment and malicious prosecution
- Alleged battery and emotional stress stemming from his incarceration in the Wakulla County Jail and the Leon County Jail.
- A state law claim of negligence based on Hunter-Donaldson’s recommendation of approval of the Sentinel contract despite her alleged knowledge it was out-of-date and failed to accurately monitor individuals.
The use of Gps Monitor on living people cause injury and violates the Federal States’ constitutions’ rights by unconstitutional bill of attainders, ex post facto special statues, codes and regulations repugnant to the Constitution by inflictions of malicious prosecution threats, duress, coercion, torture and unusual punishments under color of authority, color of law and color of jurisdiction where no injured people existed or complained obviously as we all know the police can not be the victim.
GPS ankle bracelets are now officially a joke? A YouTube has went viral showing a trick how to remove one-not set it off::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCgSMFEZAb8
Anyone who has just a smidgen of IT tech and GPS knowledge would know that this is just a bundle of lawsuits waiting to happen. Think of how hard it is for apps like Google Earth and whatever flavor Apple is putting out there to properly render STATIC images in real time.
Now, take the information that is being gather from one person, as they go about their day. They’re inside buildings; big buildings, small buildings, wooden buildings, buildings made of cement, buildings made of metal, tall buildings, short buildings. Those buildings may have thousands of computers, or none. They may be outside buildings, in elevators, basements, cars, buses. Cars and buses now have their own GPS systems, and computers with many signals.
Guy wearing ankle monitor is constantly moving, shifting through all of that noise. His “transmitter” is supposed to send a signal to a satellite, that is then sent to a “receiver” that some nameless gorm is doing a daily on once an hour for barely above minimum wage. Guy’s transmitter isn’t that powerful to have his “signal” cut right straight through all the other stuff that’s going on. He’d have to wear an anklet the size of a Fridg-a-daire to accomplish that. So, his little bleat of a signal gets lost. Plus, as his signal bounces off the satellite, it has farther to travel, thus a greater chance for packets of information to be lost.
This is a no-brainer. They should hire me to tell them to scotch the whole thing. You’re welcome, Sentinel!