JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A four-day, three-county crime spree ended with a citizen's tip that helped police find and arrest the man they said attacked two women, raped one and committed several armed robberies.
A judge ordered no bond for 41-year-old Brian Fogarty Wednesday.
Fogarty had been on the run since July 5, when, according to the Department of Corrections, he cut off his ankle monitoring device.
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“They were making efforts to locate him. It's not an unusual occurrence to have somebody abscond from his ankle monitors,” said Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Director Tom Hackney during a Tuesday news conference.
Fogarty was being monitored by a state probation officer after being conditionally released from prison in May.
An arrest warrant shows he failed to tell his probation officer he had moved, he violated curfew and cut off his tracking device.
According to the DOC, Fogarty’s probation officer was notified exactly five minutes after he took off the ankle monitor.
But despite Fogarty’s lengthy criminal history that labeled him a habitual offender, his case wasn’t forwarded to the Florida Commission on Offender Review until July 8. Two days later, a warrant for his arrest was issued.
Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson said Fogarty confessed to committing an armed robbery on July 23, Fogarty’s 41st birthday, at My Fuel station in Macclenny. According to Dobson, Fogarty was armed with a machete and got away with $300. No one was injured.
The next day, he made his way to Jacksonville Beach, where Hackney said he sexually assaulted a woman at knifepoint, kidnapped her, her husband and two children, and forced them to withdraw money from their bank accounts.
On Monday, police said Fogarty committed a home invasion in the Westside, stole jewelry and other property then kidnapped a woman who lives in the home and also forced her to withdraw money from her bank account.
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It took investigators to 21 days to capture Fogarty.
“It demonstrates pretty conclusively that the mechanism used to monitor conditional release prisoners is not fail proof,” said Action News Jax Law and Safety Expert Dale Carson.
Carson said once a breach occurs, investigators immediately try to contact those closest to the offender and check to make sure the GPS system is working properly. He said the series of steps to confirm the offender has indeed taken off his monitor also lends to a delay.
“The only way to keep track of individuals who are dangerous to society is to keep them incarcerated,” said Carson.
Action News Jax looked through dozens of court records in at least seven counties, including one out of state. Court records date back to 1994.
A police report from Belleview, Florida, details one of his latest convictions from 2004, where police said Fogarty hit a man over “the head with a black metal bar,” punched him several times and took his wallet.
Then in 2007, he pleaded guilty to trying to elude law enforcement.
Upon being conditionally released from prison, strict restrictions were imposed, including a mandatory ankle monitoring device.
“Ordinarily, he would be in prison until the end of his sentence, his EOS, but under these circumstances, they felt like he could make it on the outside. They were obviously wrong,” said Carson.
Cox Media Group
