Editorial: Ankle bracelet only works if defendant wants it to

The fourth time was the charm for longtime lawbreaker Steven V. Trujillo who, after being turned down three times in his bid to get out of jail, convinced 2nd Judicial District Judge Jacqueline Flores to lower his bond and release him – albeit with an ankle monitor to track his whereabouts and his hollow promises to stay sober and be home by 8 p.m. nightly.

But it was also the death knell for Mary Soto, 30, and a 14-year-old boy whom the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department has refused to identify. Seven other people who were in the Ford Expedition that Trujillo crashed into at 12:40 a.m. Sunday – allegedly while drunk, police say – were badly injured. Six of them are children, ranging in age from 1 to 12. Trujillo had to be cut out of his truck after the crash.

Deputies who showed up at the horrific crash noticed that Trujillo was wearing an ankle monitor and soon learned that he was on a pretrial release program.

Trujillo, 36, is a frequent guest at the Metropolitan Detention Center, and a violent one. At his initial court appearance after the crash, Anthony Carter of the court’s Pretrial Services Division went over Trujillo’s rap sheet: Convicted of DWI in 2007 and 2012; eight misdemeanor arrests with two convictions; 33 bench warrants, nine of them for failure to appear; six felony arrests, with convictions for attempted drug trafficking in 1999 and aggravated assault/domestic violence in 2005.

At the time of the crash, Trujillo was facing felony charges for kidnapping, aggravated battery/domestic violence, child abuse, attempted breaking and entering, bribery of a witness and criminal damage to property.

He had been held in jail since February 2014 after a grand jury indicted him on rape and battery charges – both related to alleged attacks on his ex-partner. One of the attacks, according to court records, involved beating his ex with a brick.

Now, Trujillo is back in jail, still facing the pending cases but with new charges: two homicide by vehicle charges, DWI and seven great bodily harm by vehicle charges.

And this is a man who qualified for pretrial release?

Citing state rules that prohibit judges and court officials from commenting on individual cases, 2nd District Court spokesman Tim Korte declined to comment on Trujillo’s, or explain why there was no attempt to have police or deputies haul him in more than four hours before the crash when his GPS-enabled ankle monitor supposedly alerted someone at Pretrial Services that he had violated his 8 p.m. curfew that fatal night.

While the public might presume that any violation of Trujillo’s signed agreement would result in a quick attempt at arrest, the only thing his monitor triggered Sunday night was a bureaucratic morass.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Tanner Tixier said violations like Trujillo’s generally produce an administrative alert in the tracking system. System administrators can take evidence of the violation to a judge in seeking an arrest warrant, but the violation doesn’t automatically result in law enforcement arresting the violator.

Korte said the ankle monitor sends an email alert to a supervisor when a violation occurs, and Pretrial Services officers “can immediately send a signal to the defendant’s ankle monitor with further instructions, such as directions to leave the restricted area immediately.” The court can then send a message to the wearer to appear before a judge.

For what it’s worth, the monitor also alerts the person wearing the ankle bracelet that they’re where they shouldn’t be.

On Monday, Metro Court Judge Vidalia Chavez stated the obvious, saying Trujillo is “a clear and obvious danger to the community” and set bond at $250,000 cash only. It’s tragic that Trujillo managed to exploit the system, and that he managed to ignore the conditions of his release long enough to allegedly kill two innocent people.

But the Trujillo case points to a dilemma facing the state’s judges under its Constitution, which essentially guarantees bail in all cases up to first-degree murder. And so, Flores technically made the right decision – and Chavez the wrong one – although it’s highly unlikely the public that is put at risk would agree.

What it means is that it’s time for a discussion on the issue of pretrial release and, if necessary, a change by the Legislature and the state’s voters so we don’t have to put judges in this position and the public at unnecessary risk.

— Albuquerque Journal