Daniel B. Maffei: “Thank you, Ranking Member Jose Serrano. Mr. Chairman, I am here because, on March 14, 2013, in my upstate New York…”

“Thank you, Ranking Member Jose Serrano. Mr. Chairman, I am here because, on March 14, 2013, in my upstate New York district, a school librarian named Lori Bresnahan and a 10-year- old child were attacked in a mall parking lot. The attacker was facing Federal child pornography charges and was out on bail and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. He disabled the bracelet, left his home, stabbed Mrs. Bresnahan to death, and sexually assaulted the young girl. In the days following the attack, it was revealed that the attacker had been removing and reassembling the GPS monitoring bracelet. The device sent out tamper alerts every time he disabled the device, but the Federal probation office responsible for monitoring this defendant before his trial failed to respond to 46 total tamper alerts. On the day of the attack, he again disabled his bracelet, and the office again ignored the alert. If they had investigated any of these 46 tamper alerts, maybe this tragedy could have been avoided. This appropriations bill funds the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the organization tasked with overseeing the system of Federal probation offices all over this country. After this case, I wrote to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, asking them to investigate this gross negligence.…”