A Monterey County judge Thursday denied a request to reduce the bail of a Salinas teenager accused of driving drunk in a fatal crash early New Year’s Day.
Judge Timothy Roberts kept Alexander Gordon Winn’s bail at $100,000. Roberts had indicated in a previous hearing that he would consider reducing bail to $60,000 if GPS monitoring is obtained for Winn.
At Thursday’s hearing, the judge told Winn’s lawyer, Jim Dozier, that he did not think the monitoring system was sufficiently secured.
“You’re not telling me it’s lined up … ready to go,” Roberts said. “At this point, the court is going to deny the motion.”
Winn has pleaded not guilty to charges of vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence and driving under the influence causing bodily injury.
The incident
He was arrested soon after the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado he was driving crashed into an uphill embankment at 2:25 a.m. New Year’s Day. The crash occurred on Corral de Tierra Road just west of Underwood Road near Salinas.
Adam E. Arias, an 18-year-old Salinas High School alumnus who was riding in the truck, died at the scene. Janelle Powers, 18, another passenger, received a bruise on her forehead.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 5, where a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
This local article highlights an interesting use of GPS technocorrections as a means to keep California sex offenders away from a notable public region:
Law enforcement officials will use global positioning system tracking technology to monitor sex offenders at the Tehama County Fair this year, the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office announced this morning….
Parole agents will establish an exclusion zone around the perimeter of the fair grounds for the duration of the event. The Redding GPS Parole Unit and Tehama County Sheriff’s Office are teaming up to track and monitor the activities at the fair.
A sex offender parolee who enters the fair will set off an alert. Once a notification is received, on-site agents will track the offender’s movement and investigate if any law, parole violation or any public safety issues exist and take appropriate action, said Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker.
California is the nation’s leader in using GPS technology to track sex offenders, Parker said. Today, Tehama County has just under 280 registered sex offenders, 59 of whom are parolees on active supervision. Every sex offender on active parole has GPS monitoring as part of their supervision.
Every sex offender on state parole in California is now being monitored by GPS technology, a major accomplishment that is six months ahead of previous projections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matt Cate announced today.
“This is a significant milestone to protecting public safety by holding these individuals accountable for the actions and their whereabouts,” Cate said. “The CDCR is holding true to a commitment it has made to fit every sex offender parolee with a GPS device and monitor them aggressively.”
California is the nation’s leader in using GPS technology to track sex offenders. Today, a total of 6,622 sex offenders – all active sex offender parolees in the community – are now being monitored by GPS. These offenders are fitted with an ankle bracelet that transmits its location to parole agents, who also visit these individuals on a routine basis.
Due to the diligence and hard work of our entire parole division, CDCR is more than six months ahead of schedule in placing the entire sex offender population on GPS supervision,” said Division of Adult Parole’s Director, Tom Hoffman. “California is by far the nation’s leader when it comes to tracking sex offenders using GPS, and this massive effort will assist us in better monitoring the activities of sex offenders on parole and improving public safety.”
CDCR’s Division of Adult Parole Operations originally projected having this entire population – in addition to those requiring GPS supervision under Jessica’s Law – under GPS monitoring by June 2009 due to workload issues and availability of the GPS devices. However, as a result of a concentrated effort to achieve this goal, that date was greatly surpassed.
Jessica’s Law, also known as Proposition 83, was passed overwhelmingly by California voters in 2006. The law required that every paroled sex offender be monitored by GPS, which is a single, yet important, tool in helping California’s parole agents supervise sex offenders more closely.
Currently, parole agents monitor sex offenders on an offender to agent caseload of 40 offenders for every one agent while offenders classified as high risk are monitored on a 20 offender to every one agent.
CDCR’s parole division is solely responsible for those sex offenders serving a parole term which is approximately 11 percent of the entire sex offender population in California. The remaining sex offender population – some 92,000 sex offenders – are under the jurisdiction of local law enforcement authorities. In addition to sex offenders, CDCR parole agents supervise nearly 125,000 parolees serving an average of three to five year parole term.
CDCR works continuously and aggressively to improve its policies on managing sex offenders and frequently seeks input from the California Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB), which was created in 2006 to advise the Legislature, the Governor and CDCR in developing sound policy and recommendations on sex offender management.
The CDCR also partners with local law enforcement agencies to pilot GPS technology on High Risk Gang Offenders, and are seeing great potential for reducing gang and violent crime throughout the state as well.
CDCR has established an internet web page to provide updated statistics on California’s parole population, sex offenders, how GPS works as well as information on Jessica’s Law. Please visit the CDCR web site at: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/ or go to direct link at: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Parole/Sex_offender_facts/index.html
William French, 29, of Framingham, MA., was arrested in the wee hours Friday morning and charged with aggravated rape kidnapping, assault and battery, unarmed robbery, threats to commit a crime, kidnapping and removing his GPS monitoring unit.
French was released form prison a few months ago in 2009, after serving eight years of a nine year sentence for aggravated rape.
After allegedly failing a random drug test this week, he was ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device. This made him very unhappy. As you can see in the video, William French likes his privacy.
William French: Rapists Cuts Off GPS Bracelet, Rapes Again (Video)
William French obviously didn’t learn anything after spending eight years in prison for the brutal rape of a woman in 2001. Perhaps he thinks rules are meant for everyone but him, perhaps he just simply doesn’t bother to think.
He is a Level 3 sex offender, and had been staying at at his grandmother’s, then his mother and step-father’s home since his release. He was residing a stones throw from a local school, and worked occasional odd jobs as a laborer.
On January 4th, 2010 he allegedly violated the terms of his probation by testing positive for marijuana. Instead of returning Mr. French to prison this week for smoking pot, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead decided to allow French to wear a tracking device, known as a GPS monitoring bracelet for twelve months.
Prosecutors say probation officials were alerted at 11:25 p.m. on Thursday after French removed his GPS monitoring bracelet. A warrant for his arrest was issued 20 minutes later.
He was caught shortly before 3:00am, but not before allegedly claiming another rape victim.
“This is a terribly disturbing case,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said in a statement. “We allege that the defendant’s chilling actions occurred . . . just days after he was placed on GPS monitoring by the Probation Department for a probation violation.”
William French had arrests for burglary, assaults, larceny, and threats prior to the 2001, aggravated rape of a young mother. He threatened to kill her and her daughter with a gun if she didn’t give in to his demands; according to court records.
After his release from prison, the terms of French’s six-year probation required him to stay drug- and alcohol-free, submit to random drug screens, undergo sex offender treatment and have no contact with the victim.
So what part of that didn’t William French understand? Or what part of there is no cure for sex predators does our judicial system not understand?
William French: Rapists Cuts Off GPS Bracelet, Rapes Again (Video) shows us once again the ramifications of our twisted catch and release a predator game dangerous program.
Oscar Goudey is William French’s step-father and he had this to say, among other things. “I have known him since he was four years old. I guess he blew off the handle when they decided to put one of those leg bands on him and he couldn’t handle it anymore.”
Excuses! We have been taught by the oh-so-politically-correct liberals in this nation to make excuses for criminal behavior. We have had it shoved down our collective throats that the poor criminal may or may not have had a bad life…may or may not have been…GASP! a victim, him / herself! We must talk nicely, punish lightly, forgive and forget.
I say ENOUGH! No more excuses! None, zero, period.
We have totally forgotten that these criminals had one thing their victims did not…a CHOICE!
I am tired of the criminal coddling, the slap on the hand sentences, the look the other way, it’s not my problem attitude.
I am fed up with people like William French, another convicted rapist cuts off GPS, rapes again stories.
Can anything be done? What has to happen…. before we reach the point that we are once again, willing to punish criminals and mean it?
What has to happen before we start screaming, in voices loud enough to be heard…NO MORE EXCUSES?
In my opinion, William French should have never been allowed out of prison. Sadly, he will likely be let out again, and rape, again.
French is scheduled for a “dangerousness” hearing next week.
Be sure to watch the video. Mr. French wants to keep his face covered with a blanket….it’s a privacy matter. Too damn bad he didn’t extend that privacy / courtesy thing to his victims; as in their homes were private, as were their bodies..