Accused rapist’s monitor didn’t alert authorities
Man violated probation while wearing GPS device
Accused serial rapist Timothy Bachicha was allowed to be only at his home or workplace during the 20 hours in late October when police say he held a woman captive in a parking lot, sexually assaulted her and choked her until she passed out.
However, it doesn’t appear as though the GPS monitor meant to track his whereabouts ever alerted Bachicha’s probation officer that he was breaking the conditions of his sentence.
This suggests the agency did not set up the GPS to enforce that 36-year-old Bachicha was where
he was supposed to be.
Bachicha’s violation report attached to a motion to revoke his probation indicates what might have happened. The motion was heard in 2nd Judicial Court on Thursday, and Bachicha pleaded no contest to violating his curfew.
The report lists several zones — “mandatory,” “master zone,” “area of interest” — in a daily summary for the time period in question, but next to each one it states “no zone exists,” suggesting the device wasn’t set up to alert officers when Bachicha violated the terms of his probation.
Monica Hook, the vice president of strategic marketing at BI Incorporated — the company that makes the GPS Bachicha was wearing during the attack — would not talk about how the device works, but she did say that it is possible for agencies to create “zones” where an offender has to be or is forbidden from going.
“The system is customizable down to the number of zones and the types of zones,” Hook said in a phone interview. “Pretty much anything the agency wants to draw lines around, they can.”
The report states that there were no alerts during the first several hours that Bachicha was breaking curfew.
The Department of Corrections “has launched an internal investigation into the incident,” spokesman S.U. Mahesh wrote in an email, although he would not elaborate on what is being investigated.
He said that, while the investigation is ongoing, he could not answer any questions about the way the GPS works or if anyone will be disciplined.
“In addition to an internal investigation, the Albuquerque Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the incident, which we are assisting,” Mahesh wrote. “The GPS unit has been vital in determining the whereabouts of the offender and providing location points during the incident.”
Little restriction
The GPS monitor strapped onto Bachicha’s ankle did help APD detectives establish that he was at a parking lot behind University of New Mexico Hospital where the woman said she was held captive, repeatedly choked, beaten and raped.
However, it did little to restrict his movements around the city.
On Nov. 9, prosecutors filed a motion that states Bachicha violated his probation by being charged with another offense and by failing to return to his home the night he is accused of raping the woman.
The attached probation violation report shows that Bachicha traveled all over Albuquerque during the times he was ordered to be at his Los Ranchos home or at his job.
He was at or near a fraternity house on University of New Mexico campus, a northeast Albuquerque apartment complex, a cellphone store, and finally, the street where the young woman said he kidnapped her and the parking lot where she said he held her hostage for 20 hours.
None of those places is near his home or workplace.
According to the report, there were no alerts until 10 a.m. the next morning when the tracker’s battery was low.
Joey Montaño, the deputy district attorney of the general crimes unit, said that while he doesn’t have firsthand knowledge about how the GPS monitor alerts probation and parole officers, he has seen violations that were generated based on GPS coordinates alone.
He said in cases involving sex offenders, it’s common for probation officers to be alerted when someone has gone where they are not supposed to.
Montaño said this case raises questions on whether Bachicha was breaking the curfew before he reportedly kidnapped and raped the woman.
“You would have to ask Probation and Parole,” he said. “I imagine the question to ask was, prior to Oct. 30 was he complying with going from home to work?”
On Thursday morning, Bachicha shuffled into a courtroom in 2nd Judicial District Court to plead no contest to violating his probation by breaking curfew. After saying “yes, your honor” and “no, your honor” to several questions, he was sentenced to 648 days in the Department of Corrections. He could be out in half that time for good behavior.
The October rape case against him is pending.
In regard to that case, his attorney, Raymond Maestas, wrote in an email: “Rushing to judgment is against our nation’s laws. Mr. Bachicha is innocent. Let’s not forget that.”
Out on probation
Bachicha was on probation after pleading guilty to two counts of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer — misdemeanor charges. In mid-September, he was sentenced to supervised probation, with one of the terms that he wear a GPS device and “will be at work at 8 a.m. and leave work to go straight home at 7 p.m.” for the first year.
The night that police say Bachicha kidnapped a 21-year-old woman who was walking from her home to the bus stop, he had been wearing the GPS monitor for 44 days, according to court documents.
The woman told police that on the evening of Oct. 30, Bachicha forced her into his van near Indian School and San Mateo NE and drove her to a parking lot behind the University of New Mexico Hospital where he sexually abused her for about 20 hours. She said he forced her to give him oral sex and choked her repeatedly, including once when she passed out.
She said Bachicha finally let her go the next day after his GPS monitor kept beeping.
According to the probation violation report, the monitor was beeping because its batteries were getting low around 10:30 a.m. At this point, according to the terms of his probation, he should have been home for 13 hours, then at his workplace for two hours.
Bachicha was arrested four days later — the criminal case aided in part by the coordinates on the GPS monitor that corroborated the woman’s story. He is charged with criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping and aggravated battery.
It’s not the first time Bachicha has been accused of kidnapping and rape. And after he was arrested, the District Attorney’s Office said more victims have come forward.
Police reports show that, since June 2017, six women reported that Bachicha had held them captive in a vehicle and raped them. Many of those reports did not result in charges, however, and, when they did, the cases were eventually dismissed.
In February, Bachicha was charged with battery on a peace officer when he resisted arrest and tried to attack a deputy who was helping Bachicha’s wife serve him with an eviction order and an order of protection. That was the case he pleaded guilty to in September.
In April, about two months after he was arrested and released on bond, he was arrested again and charged with kidnapping a woman on east Central and raping and choking her.
These violent charges spurred prosecutors to convince the court to add a GPS monitor to Bachicha’s conditions of release.
Deputy DA Montaño said it’s unusual for a suspect who is charged with battery on a peace officer to be put on a GPS monitor.
“In this case — resisting or evading officers — that’s generally not a case where the judge is going to be concerned that the individual will harass this officer that he battered,” Montaño said. “Because of him having those other allegations, that was the concern that (the prosecutor) pitched and the judge agreed.” The April rape case was dismissed after prosecutors said law enforcement couldn’t find the victim again, but the GPS monitor remained on Bachicha. When he was sentenced, Judge Stan Whitaker ordered him to continue wearing it.
Now Bachicha, with his probation revoked, will serve the remainder of his sentence in prison while awaiting trial on the October rape charges.