(Shenzhen, China) – According to an article: Faulty GPS tracking devices and overworked state parole agents led to the death of a young woman whose mangled body was found at an Anaheim trash recycling center, according to a lawsuit filed by the victim’s mother.
Jodi Pier-Estepp alleges in the suit that the state did not adequately monitor two GPS-wearing sex offenders accused of killing her 21-year-old daughter, Jarrae Nikole Estepp, and three other women kidnapped from areas known for prostitution. The two suspects violated state rules by frequently meeting, but nothing was done.
“Except for the (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s) failure to monitor and report such violations, Ms. Estepp would be alive today,” said the suit, filed last week.
Brought by Pier-Estepp and the victim’s 5-year-old son, Nehemian McGee, the suit names the state corrections department and electronic monitoring companies Satellite Tracking of People and 3M, as well as unnamed parole agents.
One of the accused killers, Franc Cano, was under state parole at the time Jarrae Estepp was slain. The other defendant, Steven Gordon, had left state parole months earlier and was under federal supervision. Both men are awaiting trial.
A Register investigation into the serial killings brought to light a false sense of security created by an over-reliance on tracking devices and the overworking of parole agents.
The corrections department declined to comment on the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Jarrae Estepp’s nude body was found March 21, 2014, on a conveyor belt in a large trash compactor across town from where Gordon and Cano lived in an Anaheim industrial complex. GPS and cell phone data linked Estepp’s death with the two men as well as that of the other victims taken from Santa Ana.
Only Jarrae Estepp’s body has been recovered. Police believe the other victims were disposed in a dumpster and ended up buried in a landfill.
Cano and Gordon both served sentences for child molestation. They were required to register as sex offenders and wear GPS devices, which the suit says can be easily disabled.
“It came to light that the (devices) could be removed by wearers, could be covered with the tinfoil to interfere with the GPS signal, batteries died early, the cases cracked, and the devices were subject to jammers,” the suit said.
The state changed GPS vendors, but the suit alleges the move was too little, too late. “Key data and violations went undetected and unreported,” the suit says.
Also, the suit said the state parole office was not adequately staffed. Some agents are assigned up to 120 sex offenders apiece. Agents also refuse to answer alerts or calls in the middle of the night because they are not compensated, alleged the suit.
Ondre Henry, president of the state parole agents’ association, conceded that some off-duty agents don’t respond because they don’t get paid overtime and that agents are generally overtasked.
“If you want us to to be able to review tracks and investigate…the case loads need to be lower,” Henry said.
The suit blamed the state for the alleged negligence that Pier-Estepp says led to the wrongful death of her daughter.
“The CDCR failed in its duty to protect the public by employing faulty and malfunctioning (tracking devices); understaffing and failing to properly train and/or supervise its parole officers,” said the suit.
