ALSO SEE:
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Floyd. May 23, 2007: Assault and battery; aggravated stalking charges.
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2003/10/october-22-2003-assistant-prosecutor.html
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Floyd. October 2003: Jailed for 7 days.
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2003/10/assistant-prosecutor-kevin-floyd-kent.html
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Floyd. July 12, 2005: Violation of probation.
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2005/07/assistant-prosecutor-kevin-floyd-kent.html
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Floyd. December 30, 2005: Criminal contempt in civil case / divorce case.
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2005/12/assistant-prosecutor-kevin-floyd-kent.html
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Floyd. August 21, 2006: 30 day suspension ordered by State of Michigan Attorney Discipline Board for Floyd's assault and battery conviction.
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2006/08/assistant-prosecutor-kevin-floyd-kent.html.
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Floyd. May 31, 2007: Attempted to appeal May 10, 2007, parenting time ruling.
http://michiganoidv.blogspot.com/2007/05/assistant-prosecutor-kevin-floyd-kent.html
New procedures will make sure tethers are turned on
Saturday, February 28, 2004
By Doug Guthrie
The Grand Rapids Press
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-13/107796711258720.xml
New policies are in place to prevent the same shutdown of an electronic tracking tether that occurred when a former Kent County assistant prosecutor -- accused of stalking his estranged wife -- failed to pay required maintenance fees.
The global positioning satellite tracking device that one-time judicial candidate Kevin Floyd was required to wear was ordered shut off Feb. 2 for failure to pay maintenance fees to a Detroit-area electronic surveillance company. It was reactivated two days later.
"It would be bad to have someone get off a tether by just not paying for it," said Kent County Chief Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan. "It's the height of absurdity to have had this happen. From a policy standpoint, this should never happen again."
The county contracts with a leasing company called House Arrest Services for the ankle-attached tracking equipment.
Floyd had been ordered to pay $16 a day for the device. Other tethers in common use are half as expensive.
Court records show Floyd made only an initial payment when he was released from jail and fitted with the device on Oct. 29. Floyd, who resigned from his nearly $90,000-a-year job after 14 years with the Kent County Prosecutor's office, had argued he didn't have the money to pay.
He quit after being charged with aggravated stalking for violating a personal protection order obtained by his estranged wife, Andrea Morgan-Floyd.
The device allows people accused of potentially violent crimes to remain free on bond while awaiting trial.
Unlike standard electronic tethers which warn authorities if a person has left home, the GPS tether sends a signal to a receiver in the hands of the alleged victim, warning that the accused is nearby.
Authorities have said Floyd apparently was unaware that his tether was turned off, until notified by the court after it was turned back on. Floyd avoided returning to jail on Friday when he paid nearly $1,300 in overdue maintenance fees. He also paid an additional $500 for the service through March, according to his lawyer, John Beason.
Sullivan said the Floyd case was unique because it apparently is the only time a GPS tether has been turned off without a judge's order.
Sullivan said there now are procedures in place to ensure failure to pay is addressed in court before any services are turned off.
Jon Ugval, director of operations for House Arrest Services of Eastpointe, near Detroit, said his company turned off the device on orders issued from within the Kent County court's bureaucracy.
"We have never taken them off line without a court's approval," Ugval said. "It was not a House Arrest Services call. All we do is provide information for the court. Decisions are made at that level."
Sullivan said the GPS device rarely has been used in the nearly three years it has been available. He said higher cost is a factor, but the other alternative is to put the person in jail. Given the option, many defendants prefer to pay rather than go to jail, he said.
Floyd, 40, has been free on $40,000 bond since his release after a week in jail in October.
A Kalamazoo County judge assigned to the case last week gave Floyd until noon Friday to pay or go to jail.
"The judge (Kalamazoo Circuit Judge Philip D. Schaefer) was fair and reasonable in giving Kevin a chance to pay," Beason said. "We also appreciate the judge's lifting of a restriction preventing Kevin from seeing his son. The judge was fatherly and compassionate."
Schaefer is handling the case because Kent County's judges declined due to familiarity with Floyd. Kent County's prosecutor also backed away from the case for the same reason.
No date has been set for Floyd's trial. The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison, $7,500 in fines and at least five years of probation. Misdemeanor assault charges also stemming from another alleged domestic incident were dismissed in Kentwood District Court in January.
