Another example of government protecting us from savages roaming the streets of Philly and other urban kill zones across the land. They take your taxes and then proceed to function like a drunken retard. A nineteen year veteran officer was gunned down in cold blood by two black animals last week. Now the best part. One of these animals was let out of prison by a government judge and told to stay in his grandma’s house under house arrest. He was supposed to have an electronic monitoring device on his ankle. Guess why he didn’t when he gunned down Moses Walker? The PA Dept of Probations needs a telephone land line for their bracelets to work. His granny didn’t have a land line. These clueless government drones ORDERED this fucking savage to have a land line installed. He had better things to do like killing and robbing. Government at its finest.
If you think government is going to protect you from anything or anyone, you are living in a delusional fantasyland.
How accused cop-killer slipped free
By Mark Fazlollah, Mike Newall, and Joseph A. Slobodzian
When a judge on July 25 sentenced alleged cop-killer Rafael Jones for violating his probation on a gun conviction, she ordered him confined to house arrest at his grandmother’s North Philadelphia rowhouse.
But the state Board of Probations and Parole failed to set up the electronic monitoring bracelet mandated by the judge, and Jones never returned to live at the house, his family said Friday.
The day he got out of prison, Aug. 8, Jones was hanging out at 18th and Susquehanna Streets – the corner where he was shot last winter – without the bracelet ordered by Common Pleas Court Judge Susan I. Schulman.
Ten days after that, police say, he and another man stalked and killed Officer Moses Walker Jr. in a pre-dawn robbery attempt.
On Friday, Jones, 23, was arraigned on murder, robbery, firearms, conspiracy and related charges in the shooting of Walker, a 19-year veteran of the force killed while walking home after his shift at the 22d District in North Philadelphia. As is police custom when an officer is killed, Walker’s handcuffs were placed on Jones’ wrists by Walker’s fellow officers from the 22d.
Jones was held without bail and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for Sept. 12 in Municipal Court.
Jones, a thin man with a shaved head, said nothing except to acknowledge his identity and the charges.
Police also issued an arrest warrant Friday for Jones’ alleged accomplice, Chancier McFarland, 19, of the 1400 block of North 23d Street in North Philadelphia.
The circumstances around Jones’ release remain unclear. Although Schulman on July 25 ordered him released to house arrest with electronic monitoring by the state, he did not leave the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility until Aug. 8.
On that date, Schulman e-mailed prison officials to release Jones “with instructions to report directly to state parole,” according to a city official who reviewed the e-mail.
Schulman’s e-mail order followed one from a Philadelphia prison system representative, said the official. That e-mail appeared to state that a monitoring system was being set up for Jones.
As a result, Jones walked out of prison that day unfettered, instructed only to report to his state probation officer. He apparently did report in the days after that, a source said, but there is no indication he was ever placed on electronic monitoring.
Jones’ grandmother Ada Banks said Friday afternoon that Jones’ probation officer contacted her before last month’s probation violation hearing, asking if Jones could come live with her.
Banks said she declined. Jones had been shot in the neighborhood earlier this year, she said Friday, and she worried that if he returned to her neighborhood, he would only find trouble.
“This is a house of peace,” she said, surrounded by some of her grandchildren, in front of her Bouvier Street home, just a block from the 22d District station, where the flag hangs at half-staff. “I didn’t need the drama.”
She said the probation officer was in a hurry and told her Jones could be released as soon as that day. Banks said she told the officer that Jones could live with his aunt in West Oak Lane. “He said, ‘I’m just going to tell the judge he’s being released to you, and when he comes to you send him to his aunt’s,” she said.
The probation officer said he would find Jones to get him fitted with the ankle bracelet, Banks said. That never happened, she said.
Banks was not at the July hearing, and her grandson did not stay with her again.
At the hearing, state parole agent Jose Rodriguez recommended that Jones be released on probation and put on electronic monitoring.
Rodriguez told the judge that officers are trained in fitting ankle bracelets and could outfit his home with equipment that would be monitored from Harrisburg – “We get either e-mail alerts, phone call alerts or – should he violate it, leave the house at an unauthorized time.”
But Rodriguez questioned whether Jones could live at his grandmother’s, based on the conversation with her.
Jones’ attorney, Rosemary Zeccardi, told the judge that Jones would be living with with his grandmother.
Neither Rodriguez nor Zeccardi could be reached for comment Friday. Schulman has declined to comment.
Based on the assurance in court, Schulman ordered that Jones serve six months’ house arrest at the grandmother’s home.
And she ordered Rodriguez to get police to detain Jones if he left the house for any reason other than looking for a job, completing his GED, or doing required community service work.
“There will be no other reasons for him to be out of the house,” she said. “None.”
Schulman, who in 2008 sentenced Jones to a four-year prison term for a gun conviction, noted Jones’ juvenile record and warned him that she was not impressed with his record since had finished his sentence in October.
Jones’ juvenile record goes back to age 12, when he was charged with throwing a rock through his mother’s front door. He was arrested at 15 for selling drugs and then caught in a stolen Jeep.
His first gun arrest was when he was 17, when officers said they caught him with a loaded .38-caliber revolver.
“To see that I am concerned about you would be an understatement,” Schulman told Jones.
Jeremy Brooks, Jones’ cousin, said he and Jones’ mother saw Jones hanging on the corner the night he was released.
“I pulled up and said, ‘It’s good to see you,’ ” Brooks said. “He said he was ‘laying back,’ trying to stay out of trouble.”
Jones’ family said the West Oak Lane home where he stayed did not have a phone line, a must for house arrest.
Sherry Tate, a state parole board spokeswoman, said even general information about how her department conducted house arrests and monitoring was confidential.
Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, asked about the apparent failures between the state probation and justice systems, said, “Right now our focus is simple – getting the second person in custody so we can wrap this up.”
About Jones, he said: “Thank God we got him and he won’t be able to harm anyone else, and this time perhaps the system will put him away for the rest of his miserable life.”
He said, ‘I’m just going to tell the judge he’s being released to you, and when he comes to you send him to his aunt’s”
So does the parole officer face charges for accesory to murder before the fact? Is he fired for dereliction of duty, or does he get suspended with pay and retire early with a full pension?
I know something about electronic monitoring devices. I worked in a system that used them for years. A monitor can be installed before a person leaves custody. There are devices that don’t require a land line; they’re monitored by satellite. The devices can track people to within a few feet. For example, people ordered not to leave their home have gotten arrested quickly for getting their mail down the street at their mail box. The devices can also monitor alcohol abuse. Police response can be as quick as a violation is reported to them. Individual monitoring fees are inexpensive. Those who are released from jail to electronic monitoring pay weekly fees up front or don’t get released.
What amazes me is the gross negligence by the release monitor if what Administrator reports is correct. The judge should have been checking on the release monitor to see that the person she released was being supervised. That’s the way it worked in the system I’m familiar with.
Jackson
You have to realize this is Penntucky. The government drones could have spent our tax dollars on satellite monitored electronic bracelets but they chose to give themselves gold plated pensions and healthcare instead.
Administrator,
You mean in Pensionylvania, where the government’s concerned, it’s “Fuck the public first” not “Fuck, (it’s) the public first.”
It must be very taxing to live in such a state.
Well, this time I hope they take him out back of the prison compound and let one of Officer Walkers’ fellow patrolmen put a 9mm slug into his brain stem.
There is a limit to “lawfulness” and this guy way exceeded it.
MA
Judge Susan Schulman is another Democratic liberal judge that puts killers and predators back on the street. Why would she let this animal out of his cage?
Administrator,
Hey, man, put yourself in that woman judge’s position. Be sympathetic, be empathetic. That black animal is a man who’s had no privileges, no opportunities, and no chances in life. Low spades is all he’s been dealt. Is it any wonder he’s played his cards poorly. Is it any wonder he’s gambled away his chances and is in the crib. Someone needs to help him…Right? Someone needs to give him a chance like you got, your kids are getting, and we’ve all had. This is America. The black animal deserves a boost from someone who just knows that if she helps him he’ll help himself. How can you possibly fault a social worker judge for giving a hand up to a man who, hand’s down, is a handful. How can you possibly fault a social worker judge who knows best what to do and, like a fool, is willing to kiss the hand that pulled the trigger and stilled a policeman’s heart?
Statement from the head of the PA Parole Board:
On behalf of the Board, I would like to offer my sympathies to the family of Philadelphia Police Officer Moses Walker, Jr. We are all deeply saddened by this senseless tragedy. The Board has completed a preliminary review of the case of Rafael Jones, who has been charged with the murder of Officer Walker. Mr. Jones served a two to four year state sentence for carrying a firearm without a license. His minimum sentence date expired on October 16, 2009. His maximum sentence date was October 16, 2011. A three year probationary sentence was imposed consecutive to his state prison sentence. In July of 2009, the Board denied Mr. Jones parole and he remained incarcerated after his minimum sentence expired. In March of 2011, the Board decided that Jones would serve his maximum sentence. On October 16, 2011, at the end of his state sentence, Jones was released and his consecutive probation sentence began. As a “special probation” case, Mr. Jones was under the supervision of the Board while the sentencing judge retained legal jurisdiction over the offender and made all decisions regarding parole violations, unlike most state parolees where the Board makes those decisions. On July 25, 2012, Judge Schulman ordered Mr. Jones continued on probation with an additional condition of probation that he be placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring for six months. The procedures of the Board do not require a parole agent to escort an offender from prison to a parole office in order to have a radio frequency electronic monitoring device placed on the offender. Mr. Jones reported to the parole office as directed when he was released. Mr. Jones did not have a telephonic land line at his approved residence and he was given two weeks to have one installed so that the electronic monitoring aspect of his sentence could be imposed. When the Board learned that Mr. Jones was a person of interest in this crime, our Fugitive Apprehension and Search Team (FAST) Unit assisted the U.S. Marshals Service and the Philadelphia Police Department with the apprehension of Mr. Jones. The Board will conduct a full review all policies related to special probation cases and electronic monitoring.
Michael C. Potteiger
Speaking of drones, I don’t think much of the Philadelphia Inquirer either.
Novista
I canceled the liberal rag Phila Inquirer two years ago.
Isn’t that Michael Vick?
Regarding Mr. Potteiger’s prevarications, “Fine words butter no parsnips.”
Regarding Mr. Potteiger’s, “The Board will conduct a full review all policies related to special probation cases and electronic monitoring,” FYandTHYRIO and, if this is all you have to say, MYRIH forever.
There are some people in our society that never evolve above a rabbid animal ! Those that show they ar not capable of conducting their lives need to be :”KEPT IN CAGES, FEED WITH SHOVELS , hosed down ocassionally and POKED WITH STICKS FOR OUR AMUSMENT”