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By Ed Komenda
8:13 PM EDT, October 11, 2012
John Goodman may have traded his multi-million-dollar estate for a prison cell.
The Wellington polo executive, who was convicted of DUI-manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Scott Wilson in 2010, was sent back to Palm Beach County jail late Wednesday after authorities said he destroyed his ankle monitoring device with a handheld mirror.
Now, Goodman is scheduled to face Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath in court at 10 a.m. Friday to learn if he'll await his appeal behind bars instead of inside his posh estate.
Deputies say that just after 11 p.m. Wednesday, Goodman walked up the stairs to a second-floor bathroom, shut the door and took a shower.
Just before midnight, something happened.
The deputies waiting outside the bathroom door got a call from headquarters: Someone had tampered with the monitoring device strapped around Goodman's ankle.
Within 35 seconds, the deputies confronted Goodman. He told them he had heard a "clicking noise" in the shower, looked at his ankle and noticed the monitor hanging there, broken, said Sgt. Walter Lawrence, head of Alternative Custody in the Sheriff's Office.
It appeared Goodman smashed the black box around his ankle with the edge of a blue handheld mirror, which had been chipped at one of its edges, deputies said. The box, holding a GPS transmitter that sends signals to a command center in Tampa, had been cracked, its insides exposed.
Goodman had evidently struck the monitor with the mirror repeatedly, leaving a paint residue on the bracelet, said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
"It's not something where you just accidentally bump up against something and there's gonna be a problem," Bradshaw said.
Deputies handcuffed Goodman and took him to the Palm Beach County Jail around 11:45 p.m. He was booked without bond, which is standard when a person violates house arrest orders. No new charges were filed against him.
Lawrence said Goodman's method for breaking the monitor was a rare one. House arrest subjects typically try to cut the monitor's rubber band, which wraps around the ankle and is braided inside with fiber optic wiring that triggers an alarm when severed.
Authorities did not test Goodman's blood for drugs or alcohol. Drug and alcohol tests are randomly conducted among people on house arrest, Lawrence said.
The report by Lawrence and his partner, Deputy Manuel Castillo, pushed prosecutors to file a motion to revoke Goodman's bond. On Thursday, authorities predicted Goodman would head back to prison.
It's not often that a judge allows people to return to house arrest after they violate conditions of their release.
An attorney from the firm that represented Lili Wilson, Scott Wilson's mother, said Goodman should stay in jail this time.
"The conditions of John Goodman's post-conviction release are an extraordinary accommodation far beyond the means of the vast majority of criminal defendants," Jack Scarola of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley PA said in a statement. "If the facts support the conclusion that Mr. Goodman actively attempted to violate those conditions, then it is clearly time to end his privileged treatment and relieve him of the burden of paying for his private 'jailers.' "
Goodman has been under house arrest since May, when he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the February 2010 death of Wilson, whose car flipped into a Wellington canal after it was hit by the Bentley Goodman was driving.
8:13 PM EDT, October 11, 2012
John Goodman may have traded his multi-million-dollar estate for a prison cell.
The Wellington polo executive, who was convicted of DUI-manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Scott Wilson in 2010, was sent back to Palm Beach County jail late Wednesday after authorities said he destroyed his ankle monitoring device with a handheld mirror.
Now, Goodman is scheduled to face Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath in court at 10 a.m. Friday to learn if he'll await his appeal behind bars instead of inside his posh estate.
Deputies say that just after 11 p.m. Wednesday, Goodman walked up the stairs to a second-floor bathroom, shut the door and took a shower.
Just before midnight, something happened.
The deputies waiting outside the bathroom door got a call from headquarters: Someone had tampered with the monitoring device strapped around Goodman's ankle.
Within 35 seconds, the deputies confronted Goodman. He told them he had heard a "clicking noise" in the shower, looked at his ankle and noticed the monitor hanging there, broken, said Sgt. Walter Lawrence, head of Alternative Custody in the Sheriff's Office.
It appeared Goodman smashed the black box around his ankle with the edge of a blue handheld mirror, which had been chipped at one of its edges, deputies said. The box, holding a GPS transmitter that sends signals to a command center in Tampa, had been cracked, its insides exposed.
Goodman had evidently struck the monitor with the mirror repeatedly, leaving a paint residue on the bracelet, said Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
"It's not something where you just accidentally bump up against something and there's gonna be a problem," Bradshaw said.
Deputies handcuffed Goodman and took him to the Palm Beach County Jail around 11:45 p.m. He was booked without bond, which is standard when a person violates house arrest orders. No new charges were filed against him.
Lawrence said Goodman's method for breaking the monitor was a rare one. House arrest subjects typically try to cut the monitor's rubber band, which wraps around the ankle and is braided inside with fiber optic wiring that triggers an alarm when severed.
Authorities did not test Goodman's blood for drugs or alcohol. Drug and alcohol tests are randomly conducted among people on house arrest, Lawrence said.
The report by Lawrence and his partner, Deputy Manuel Castillo, pushed prosecutors to file a motion to revoke Goodman's bond. On Thursday, authorities predicted Goodman would head back to prison.
It's not often that a judge allows people to return to house arrest after they violate conditions of their release.
An attorney from the firm that represented Lili Wilson, Scott Wilson's mother, said Goodman should stay in jail this time.
"The conditions of John Goodman's post-conviction release are an extraordinary accommodation far beyond the means of the vast majority of criminal defendants," Jack Scarola of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley PA said in a statement. "If the facts support the conclusion that Mr. Goodman actively attempted to violate those conditions, then it is clearly time to end his privileged treatment and relieve him of the burden of paying for his private 'jailers.' "
Goodman has been under house arrest since May, when he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the February 2010 death of Wilson, whose car flipped into a Wellington canal after it was hit by the Bentley Goodman was driving.
Shortly after Colbath agreed to let Goodman out of jail on $7 million cash bond in May, he signed house arrest orders that confined the mogul to his home all day, every day.
One provision allowed Goodman to leave his house and walk outside for an hour during daylight. Deputies scheduled his outdoor time between 1 and 2 p.m.
Goodman had to hire two off-duty Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies to guard him at all times and he is not allowed to be further than 100 feet from the deputies.
For their watch, Goodman pays the Sheriff's Office $2,000 a day. Prosecutors and defense attorneys originally agreed to have one deputy guard Goodman, but the Sheriff's Office decided two deputies were required.
Inside, when he watched television, a deputy sat nearby. Outside, when he strolled his property, Goodman had to carry the black GPS transmitter, as a deputy flanked him.
But Goodman's house arrest experience was luxurious.
His estate sprawls over almost 80 acres of land, valued at $5.9 million, featuring a house with 7,563 square feet of living area.
The home has a pool with a cabana, tennis court, six ponds, and large stables with six efficiency apartments for his staff.
Deputies say that 187 people have been ordered to wear ankle monitors in Palm Beach County so far this year. Goodman was one of six people confined to house arrest who tampered with the bracelet.
One provision allowed Goodman to leave his house and walk outside for an hour during daylight. Deputies scheduled his outdoor time between 1 and 2 p.m.
Goodman had to hire two off-duty Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies to guard him at all times and he is not allowed to be further than 100 feet from the deputies.
For their watch, Goodman pays the Sheriff's Office $2,000 a day. Prosecutors and defense attorneys originally agreed to have one deputy guard Goodman, but the Sheriff's Office decided two deputies were required.
Inside, when he watched television, a deputy sat nearby. Outside, when he strolled his property, Goodman had to carry the black GPS transmitter, as a deputy flanked him.
But Goodman's house arrest experience was luxurious.
His estate sprawls over almost 80 acres of land, valued at $5.9 million, featuring a house with 7,563 square feet of living area.
The home has a pool with a cabana, tennis court, six ponds, and large stables with six efficiency apartments for his staff.
Deputies say that 187 people have been ordered to wear ankle monitors in Palm Beach County so far this year. Goodman was one of six people confined to house arrest who tampered with the bracelet.
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