Two employees of the Texas criminal justice system were recommended for termination and others were disciplined after two men on parole with ankle monitors were arrested on murder charges in Dallas, according to a report from the governor’s office. The report by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Department of Criminal Justice, outlined legislative recommendations to prevent lapses in the state’s parole oversight process. Recommendations included a criminal charge for people who cut off ankle monitors and law enforcement's prioritizing arrest warrants for parolees under the highest level of supervision, reports the Dallas Morning News. The report did not find fault with the parole board’s decision to release the two men, who were both serving time in prison for aggravated robbery convictions. Gov. Greg Abbott had directed the agencies to probe whether mistakes occurred in the supervision of Nestor Hernandez and Zeric Jackson.
The report did not detail whether other parolees with ankle monitors have been accused of murder or other violent crimes in recent years. In a letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, Abbott wrote, “It is clear that the ankle monitors, a condition of their parole, were not effective in deterring or otherwise preventing these individuals from going on to commit violent crimes, resulting in three innocent lives being lost.” Hernandez is charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting Oct. 22 of nurse Katie Annette Flowers and social worker Jacqueline Ama Pokuaa at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. Hernandez wore an ankle monitor and had permission to be at the hospital for the birth of his child. Police said he accused his girlfriend of cheating on him, assaulted her, then shot Pokuaa when she went into the room to provide routine patient services. Flowers then looked inside the room and also was shot.
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