MACON, Ga. — A bond monitoring service, SuperCom, is now officially banned from monitoring suspects in Macon-Bibb County. Macon's Chief Superior Judge Howard Simms made the announcement in a hearing to revoke bond for eight suspects.
Bibb County's Sheriff and District Attorney says the company failed to track the suspects' ankle monitors.
Back in February, Sheriff David Davis placed SuperCom and the bond company that hired them, Anytime Bail, on a 90 day suspension.
That means they could not be hired to track any new suspects' ankle monitors.
But within three weeks, one murder suspect they were supposed to track was killed in a shootout.
Another murder suspect is still missing.
Sheriff Davis says the final straw for county officials was when Corey Dunlap, the operator of monitoring service Supercom, couldn't define house arrest and didn't realize it meant 24-7 supervision.
Dunlap first stated that in an interview with 13WMAZ that aired Wednesday. Dunlap reiterated that on the stand Monday, Davis said.
Now, Chief Judge Howard Simms and Sheriff David Davis say as long as they're in office, this monitoring service won't be allowed to track suspects.
That's after authorities say, SuperCom, also known as Eagle Monitoring Services LLC failed to monitor eight suspects.
They're all accused of violent crimes.
13WMAZ spoke to Felicia Harden, the mother of homicide victim Kenneth Campbell. She says it wasn't until our story Monday that she learned her son's alleged killer was walking the streets and not being tracked.
“My life was in jeopardy, and I didn't even know it. For him to be out, outside, roaming around the streets wherever he wanted to go,” Harden said.
Harden says she thought one of her son's alleged killers was on house arrest.
A judge granted Jacqualin Fryer a $30,000 bond in November. He bailed out the next month. Harden says she was against granting bond in the first place.
“He is able to go home and enjoy his life with his family. Hug his mom, hug his dad, that's the opportunity that I didn't even have,” Harden said.
Chief Superior Court Howard Simms revoked bond for Fryer and seven other suspects on Monday. The Sheriff says they all broke house arrest countless times.
“It starts the day after they were released on bond all the way through and the monitoring service never contacted anyone,” Sheriff Davis said.
According to indictments obtained by 13WMAZ, the eight include three murder suspects, three aggravated assault suspects, one charged with aggravated sodomy, and another charged with aggravated battery.
As of Tuesday, the Bibb County Jail website says all eight are in custody. Sheriff David Davis says that will soon change.
“So how soon can these people bail out again?,” 13WMAZ asked.
"Whenever they can get all their bond affairs in order. Probably in the next week. I would imagine that they will probably get back out,” Davis said.
“I don't think they should get the opportunity again to be able to do the same thing,” Harden said.
Davis says if and when those suspects bail out again they'll be tracked by the only other monitoring service in town, All-State Bonding.