NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — They may have barely escaped suspensions, but Monday’s court order explained how bond companies that bailed Bricen Rivers of a Nashville jail were not without fault.
The six-judge panel said in their scathing response to August’s court hearing that a “calamity of human and institutional errors” took place when Rivers was bonded out of a Nashville jail, only to become a suspect in the Mississippi murder of Lauren Johansen.
Dr. Lance Johansen read the court’s order and called it deplorable.
“If we could have just had anybody who cared enough to look at the monitoring, we could have saved my daughter’s life,” Dr. Johansen said.
The order confirmed that Nakeda Wilhoite, owner of the GPS monitoring company monitoring Rivers, did not notify the courts that she met with Rivers after learning he was in violation of his bond conditions.
At the time, Wilhoite knew Rivers was in Mississippi when she asked him to return to Nashville so she could replace his ankle monitor.
According to the order, Wilhoite did nothing to alert the courts that Rivers was back in Nashville or even that he had already skipped town once before.
Wilhoite told the court in August that Rivers reassured her he would stay with friends in Nashville since he now had a court appearance in a few days.
“He led me to believe he was going to stay in Nashville,” Wilhoite said.
She later set exclusion zones for Rivers, but only at Lauren’s address.
An address provided by Rivers.
No other zones were set outside of Davidson County, meaning there weren’t any notifications sent to victims or anyone else, once Rivers left the county.
As for why Wilhoite didn’t surrender Rivers for leaving the county once before, she told the court she was operating as a GPS monitoring company and not her other role as a bonding agent for Brooke’s Bail Bonding.
“You can say you wore whatever hat you want to say you wore that day. You were a bonding agent or monitoring agent, but Brooke’s Bail Bonds knew he was coming there,” Dr. Johansen said.
We later learned, Wilhoite not only didn’t tell the court about Rivers coming back to Nashville, but she also claimed to have kept this from her boss Brooke Harlan.
Judges had their questions for Harlan and raised concerns over an employee withholding important information and keeping their job.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates at the time presented what the courts now agree was an “inherent conflict of interest” for Wilhoite to work as a GPS monitoring company accepting clients under the same roof where she also doubled as a bonding agent.
We also discovered that Wilhoite operated another GPS monitoring company out of county, while also working as a case worker for the Department of Children Services.
The order describes how Wilhoite deliberately wore the monitoring company hat when it was convenient to avoid responsibility in this case, while “in furtherance of her business and monetary interest.”
“So, nobody did anything. Nobody acted and this is grossly incompetent and it’s against the law,” Dr. Johansen said.
Judges, however, disagree with Dr. Johansen that laws were broken by these bond companies.
While they admit there were “numerous system failures, poor individual judgment and missed opportunities,” they don’t believe these companies broke local rules in the days before and after bailing Rivers out of jail.
“If the judges don't think it fits the law in their opinion, there are many other attorneys that will disagree with them. They’re not willing to make the call that the bond companies are incompetent, and I think that the monitoring company is incompetent,” Dr. Johansen said.
Judges say there was enough blame to go around between several agencies.
Dr. Johansen however, questions if the same judges who allowed so many things to go wrong are the same ones capable of making things right to protect victims.
“There’s a way that this needs to be fixed and nobody seems to want to fix it. It’s going to take people like me and the death of my daughter, to make them accountable,” Dr. Johansen said.
How did we get here?
Bricen Rivers and Lauren Johansen were visiting Music City from Mississippi in December 2023 when their night allegedly turned violent. As the couple was leaving downtown, they got in the car where police said Rivers began beating his girlfriend as he was driving and took her phone. Rivers eventually stopped the car in a parking lot where police say the assault continued, causing her to almost lose consciousness.
Rivers was held in the Nashville jail until he was released on bond this summer. Days later, he was accused of killing Johansen.
Previous reporting: Judges hear from bonding companies on Bricen Rivers case after GPS tracking miss
Two different companies — Brooke's Bail Bonding and On Time Bail Bonds — put up $75,000 each to get Rivers released from jail. The judge said Rivers had to stay in Nashville, have no contact with the victim, and wear a GPS tracking device.
In the ruling, the judges wrote that the warrant for Rivers' arrest wasn't received promptly. They further said bonding agents are struggling to surrender defendants, meaning the magistrate is "hesitant" to accept people who violate their bond agreement.
They concluded there was no specific structure for regulating GPS monitoring companies.
When Rivers bonded out this summer, court officials acknowledged that an error by one of their clerks meant the Davidson County Jail did not have Rivers' bond conditions when he was released.
"When Mr. Rivers was released, I wasn't notified. My daughter wasn't notified. I just want you to everybody to know that this this has basically destroyed our family and what was done to my daughter Lauren Johansson should never have happened to any human being," Dr. Johansen said.
