Dozens of violations of judges’ orders, but no repercussions
Some judges fail to act when defendants on ankle bracelets defy them.
Matt Dennis was visibly angry as he displayed the more than 40 violation reports compiled against convicted multiple-time felon Nicholas Miorana for breaking his home incarceration orders.
French Quarter Shooting
New Orleans Criminal Court Judge Leon Roche ordered the house arrest as a condition Miorana’s probation for his recent gun and negligent injuring convictions but did nothing when the defendant ignored his orders.
Miorana, 29, is now booked with second-degree murder after police say he and two other man opened fire in broad daylight in the French Quarter on Nov. 21, wounding three men and killing a woman.
Dennis runs the company that monitored Miorana: Assured Supervision Accountability Program, or ASAP.
“Should it have been this far, or this far, or this far?” Dennis asked, slamming the thick pile of Miorana’s violation reports on a table. “Or should it be when a person's killed? Because that is enough.”
Miorana’s case, and Roche’s lack of response to his stack of violations, sent ripples through the criminal justice community.
“This is not a problem with the ankle monitor. This is a problem with judicial response to the violation,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said.
Attorney General Liz Murrill weighed in with the statement: “Every citizen in our state but especially everyone who lives in or visits New Orleans should be outraged.”
“We need judges to act when ASAP or any ankle monitoring company steps up and says that someone is in violation,” Williams said. “We need that judge to take them off the street.”
Dozens of ankle monitor violators
At any given time, 300 to 400 people in New Orleans alone are being electronically monitored, the majority by ankle bracelets. Most are ordered by judges or magistrates as a condition of bail and can include house arrest, curfew or stay away orders. ASAP is the most frequently used monitoring company.
ASAP has now introduced a database that tracks all defendants on their bracelets and posts a list of the ones who violate their court-ordered conditions.
WWL Louisiana reviewed the database and found dozens of violators over the past few months. Some were ordered to appear in court after just a few missteps, but dozens of others, like Miorana, racked up dozens of violations without any repercussions.
And some of those repeat violators went on to commit additional serious crimes. Dennis, who launched the database, sends notices to the judges every time a defendant commits a violation.
“When we have these judges that do nothing, you see these offenders, they're getting back in the system,” Dennis said.
Take the case of 31-year-old Quantrell Williams. He is awaiting trial in front of Judge Angel Harris for attempted murder, domestic violence and firing a gun during a violent crime. He made bail and was ordered onto strict curfew and stay award order, backed up by an ankle bracelet. But as the database and these tracking maps show Williams began racking up violations almost every day for weeks.
Judge Harris took no action, court records show. Williams has since been re-arrested and booked with five counts of violation of protective orders and indicted in Jefferson Parish for pornography of a juvenile and carnal knowledge. Harris did not respond for comment.
“When a judge ignores these notifications, he is placing victims and witnesses and other law-abiding citizens in harm's way,” Goyeneche said.
Some judges fail to act
We showed Rafael Goyeneche of the Metropolitan Crime Commission another case, this one involving 18-year-old Keith Augustine Jr., on an ankle monitor after making bail in a domestic violence case. He is accused of firing a gun at a girlfriend sending bullets flying into the home of an innocent victim, piercing a headboard where she was lying in bed.
The ASAP database shows Augustine was a regularly ignored his court-ordered curfew. One violation report even included a tipster's account accusing Augustine of being around "guns and drugs…breaking into cars and posting on Instagram guns and saying he's going to harm people.”
Judge Daryl Derbigny took no action after receiving the reports. A month later, Augustine was booked with carjacking and theft of a firearm. Derbigny did not respond for comment.
“When they ignore those notifications they're playing Russian roulette with the safety of the public,” Goyeneche said.
“When we say to a judge, we believe this person is dangerous,” Williams said. “We believe this person may hurt someone. We're not making it up. We're following the evidence.”
Other judges, in fact most of them, do respond to violation reports, the records show. Jada McKay, 20, racked up multiple violations of her house arrest when Magistrate Judge Juana Lombard issued a bench warrant for her last week.
Izeah White, 28, pushed Judge Nandi Campbell too far before she ordered ASAP to return him to court in September. Renee Carnell had a string of curfew violations in one week when Judge Robin Pittman had her brought to court for a stern warning.
“We have very good judges over there. And they are doing a good job,” Dennis said.
Judge Leon Roche repeatedly declined to comment after he was criticized for his failure to act on the more than 40 violation reports by Nicholas Miorana before he was booked in the French Quarter mass shooting.
But following that firestorm another almost daily violator in his court...career criminal and drug defendant Lester Jones...had his bail revoked by Roche and ordered to back to jail last week.
The 41-year-old Jones was already infamous for a series of escapes and contraband cases at the now-demolished Orleans Parish Prison, a 2013 scandal captured on video showing inmates with drugs, alcohol and a loaded gun.
“In the courtroom where the judges are doing it the right way,” Dennis said, “They're slowing down the crime rate because people aren't screwing up on their ankle monitors when they know it's real.”
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.