NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) – What happened inside the Cordell Hull building Tuesday morning mirrored much of what we saw in the four-hour court hearing earlier this summer.

This time, instead of a six-judge panel asking questions, we heard from Tennessee lawmakers who were just as confused by how many things went wrong in the release of Bricen Rivers.

Rivers was released from a Nashville jail in June after spending several months behind bars for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, Lauren Johansen.

The pair were visiting from Mississippi at the time.

Rivers was then placed under GPS monitoring through Freedom Monitoring, but just days later, he was charged with murdering Johansen across state lines.

He is currently in a Mississippi jail awaiting his next court hearing, but state leaders are now considering what, if any, changes they can make to avoid these tragedies in the future.

The Senate Bail Task Force heard testimony Tuesday from bond companies, GPS monitoring companies, as well as people from several adjacent industries in Tennessee.

Questions ranged from explaining the basics of what they do to what actions they take if a defendant violates bond conditions.

Leslie Anderson of the GPS monitoring company A2i shared background information on how the industry works and said that typically these devices are installed in prison, even before an inmate is released.

Anderson operates in several states and told lawmakers there are specific rules in those states regarding expectations for GPS monitoring.

Some of those lawmakers were present in court when the six-judge panel heard what they later called “a calamity of human and institutional error” that could have contributed to this tragedy.

Courts have found that neither Brooke’s Bail Bonding nor On Time Bonding they broke any local rules with the way they got Rivers out of jailbut the panel detailed nine areas of concern, including an “inherent conflict of interest” for a liaison agent to also operate as a GPS monitoring company under the same roof.

Nakeda Wilhoite owns Freedom Monitoring and told the courts she was working in her capacity as a monitoring company, not a bond agent for Brooke’s Bail Bonding, when she convinced Rivers to return to Nashville.

Rivers had already violated the terms of his bond by leaving the state, but Wilhoite said she was unaware of his conditions at the time.

She said she finally learned about the bond conditions the day before Rivers returned to Nashville, but never contacted law enforcement or turned Rivers over to the jail because she wasn’t sure she had the authority.

NewsChannel 5 is investigating he later discovered that Wilhoite also operated a bond company in another county while also working as a caseworker for the Department of Children’s Services.

Lawmakers did not address Wilhoite, who is juggling other jobs, but Sen. John Stevens, D-Huntingdon, was among the first to share his frustration after hearing about Wilhoite’s testimony.

“I’m still stunned to testify in court that this is the first time you realize you might have a conflict. It’s mind-blowing,” Stevens said.

Ken Holmes is president of the Tennessee Bonding Company, and he testified Tuesday that this is a perfect example of why a state agency, rather than the courts, could do a better job of regulating the GPS monitoring and bond industries so the rules are consistent between counties.

He argued that standardized practices through an agency like the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance would allow statewide transparency, “so what’s legal in Knoxville, would be legal in Nashville, which right now is not the same.” .

Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, warned of a possible conflict in state code over what responsibilities are typically left to the court and concluded by saying it’s a very complex issue.

Attorney Joel Moseley of the Tennessee Association of Professional Bail Agents said it’s best to leave that in the hands of the courts in each county.

“Local control provides this fine tuning. The ability to tweak things to address concerns that are of special interest to, say Hamilton County or Davidson County — that aren’t shared by Perry County or Murray County — is a benefit, not a detriment to the system,” Moseley said. .

Stevens responded by saying he was inclined to consider a statewide regulatory board if it meant easing the burden on judges, making the rules easier to understand and potentially saving lives in the process.

“At the time they were all aware there was a breach, yet no one turned them in at the time and that is extremely worrying because the whole purpose of the legislation was public safety and someone breached the public trust by not being a good actor. They put their personal interest before the public interest. I think at that point where you can say that judges are the right people to monitor this, I strongly disagree,” Stevens said.

Stevens concluded by saying that he believes the focus should remain on monitoring companies that, at this point, do not have much state oversight.

“I don’t think the courts are the right place to do that. I think we need to find a way to have the monitoring agencies actually monitor, and when there are violations, law enforcement is notified and notified immediately,” Stevens said.

Moseley responded by saying the only potential conflict of interest they saw in the case had to do with a financial conflict on Wilhoite’s part.

He argued that GPS monitoring companies are incentivized to keep people out of jail because defendants pay them for each day they are on the monitor.

“That might be something the commission needs to look at, is whether or not it would be in the public interest to have a situation where, if a defendant has breached the terms and conditions of release, then the monitoring company is not entitled to a single penny,” Moseley said.

Bill Nolan, who also represents the Tennessee Professional Bail Agents Association, provided context by saying that five years ago, his industry didn’t want to get involved in GPS monitoring to begin with.

He has now gone so far as to apologize to MPs for going too far back.

“We have a lot of things that we look at and I apologize that this industry doesn’t pay more attention to our sister industry, but there is an inherent conflict when a bail bondsman has a monitoring company. I’ll probably get fired for saying all that,” Nolan said.

Nolan told lawmakers that just last week, members of his industry took a closer look at GPS monitoring and any recommendations they can make at the next general assembly session.

Other policy considerations involved changing a previously passed law that required warrant information to be entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within 10 business days after a defendant fails to appear in court or violates the terms of the bond.

The law previously said warrants must be entered within 10 days.

Shelly Alexander of the Tennessee Association of Professional Bail Agents said that while she can’t speculate whether creating a greater sense of urgency to have these mandates in the NCIC would have saved Johansen, she believes it might. others.

Lawmakers have not voted on any changes, but say they plan to carry some of those concerns into session for more discussion and possible legislation.