The Bernalillo County District Attorney is drawing attention to a problem that threatens the safety of public citizens.
Ankle monitors, intended to track those ordered to wear them, are either being manipulated or ignored by criminals looking to avoid prosecution, a recent KRQE report said.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez pointed to a recent case where Jawid Yaqubi was accused of pulling a gun on his sister and firing a shot over his mother’s head at their Albuquerque home, the KRQE report said. The District Attorney's office argued to keep him in jail after being charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but the judge released him and ordered him to be kept in custody until he was placed on a GPS monitor. Yaqubi was released before one became available, however.
“He just walked away, and not surprisingly ended up right back at the home with his mother and his sister,” Torrez told KRQE.
His family called 911 when Yaqubi began asking for his guns that had been previously confiscated by law enforcement.
“It doesn’t surprise us that he would go back to the home,” Torrez said. “And frankly, it doesn’t surprise me that his primary interest was in getting access to those weapons.”
The case underscores Torrez's concerns about how unreliable ankle monitors are and the need for better communication between jail personnel and pretrial services.
Overcrowded jails, a back up in criminal trials and the slow wheels of the criminal justice system have led to judges opting against pretrial detentions. Yaqubi had no prior criminal history but must now face Judge Stan Whitaker again for an emergency motion to revoke his conditions of release.
Yaqubi isn’t the only criminal who eschewed an ankle bracelet. Instead of turning himself in to begin a nine-year prison sentence for rape, Ralph Vasquez cut off his ankle monitor and went on the run.
“The criminal justice system doesn’t really work well on the honor system,” Torrez told KRQE. “That’s by the nature of who we are dealing with. That’s why common sense should be the order of the day. That’s why the ankle monitor should be placed on this individual before they’re ever put on a bus and released back into the community.’’