A Minnesota family is trying to get an electronic monitoring device law passed at the State Capital to help give some meaning to their son’s death.
John and Julie Gleason, parents of Colton Gleason, pleaded their case in favor of the bill at the State Capitol last month, and the bill recently passed the Senate with unanimous support.
“He should be here today. And, had this law been in place, he would be,” said John Gleason, speaking to members of the House Public Safety Committee.
The proposal requests that any offender required to wear a home monitoring or electronic monitoring device as part of their probation should be equipped with said device prior to leaving a detention facility.
“It’s having adequate notice to the private contractors that provide this equipment to make sure that it’s going to be available and it’s ready and in place,” Rep. Jerry Hertaus, a Greenfield Republican, told KARE. “If it’s not, you don’t get out.”
Law’s Origins
The proposal came about after the tragic and senseless death of Colton Gleason, a Mankato State student who was visiting a group of friends in St. Cloud the night of the incident. According to the police report, Gleason was walking with friends when a group of young men got out of their car and approached the students.
“The car stopped, five people got out. Our son was surrounded by three of them. He told the girls to turn and keep walking and move away,” John Gleason told the panel.
A witness said Colton told his friends to keep moving and appeared to have the situation diffused when an aggressor suckerpunched Colton from behind. The blow caused Colton to fall forward and strike his head on the concrete, the force of which cracked his skull in two places. Colton regained consciousness at the hospital, but he later died of his injuries.
The attacker who threw the fatal punch – 17-year-old Jesse Smithers – had been released from juvenile detention center just one day earlier, and he was supposed to be under house arrest via electronic monitoring. Due to lax laws, Smithers had yet to be fitted for his GPS tracking ankle bracelet, and the equipment had yet to be installed. Colton’s parents say their son would still be alive if Smithers would have had his GPS bracelet installed prior to leaving juvenile detention.
“I just couldn’t understand how he actually got out of jail without that bracelet on, and he was just running around and the first thing he did was go out and find someone to kill,” Julie Gleason said during Smithers’ hearing.
The 17-year-old eventually pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Here’s the full text of the bill:
“This act shall be known as Colton’s Law. Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 244.15, subdivision 6, is amended to read: Subd. 6. Electronic surveillance. During any phase, the offender may be placed on electronic surveillance if the intensive supervision agent so directs. If electronic surveillance is directed during phase I, the commissioner must activate electronic surveillance prior to releasing the offender from confinement or the intensive supervision agent must directly supervise the offender until electronic surveillance is activated.”
The bill is expected to pass when it gets to the House.
Related source: My Fox Twin Cities, Kare 11
