CROWN POINT â The owner of a company retained by the Lake County commissioners to provide electronic monitoring of criminal defendants claims the sheriff is trying to destroy his business by repeatedly criticizing the company for not providing police with timely notification over escaped defendants.
Herbert Smith, of ICU Monitoring, said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez is not a party to his contract with commissioners and has never met with him to discuss his protocol and procedures.
But the sheriff has repeatedly held up multiple escapes by defendants under the watch of Smith s firm as evidence the county needs to sever ties with the company.
âIâll see you in heaven.â
It was the last thing Al Braccolino, 90, of Crown Point, told one of his daughters as paramedics loaded him into an ambulance Nov. 16. COVID-19 forced him into the final fight of his life.
Ten days later, the chair Al usually occupied at the Thanksgiving table would sit empty. The husband to his wife of 70 years, father of three and grandfather of six died on the holiday.
Alâs daughter, Sandra Noe, was herself suffering from COVID-19, which she contracted while caring for her sick parents, when the virus forced Alâs hospitalization.
Noe, 66, is no stranger to helping elderly shut-ins weather isolation.
CROWN POINT â In a rebuke of the Lake County Commissioners over the recent renewal of an electronic monitoring contract, Sheriff Oscar Martinez referenced three escapes that he says happened under the watch of the company that was awarded the contract.
In each of the instances, which occurred between April 2019 and September 2019, Martinez said the escaped offenders who were on court-supervised release committed serious crimes. The discord between the sheriff s office and the monitoring company has been longstanding.
In May 2019, Martinez barred the monitor ankle bracelet company, ICU Monitoring Inc., and its employees from entering Lake County Jail after two escapes in which the detainees were on court-supervised release and wearing GPS ankle bracelets monitored by the Merrillville-based company.