Bay County Man Gets 210 Days
Chad A. Monroe was very frustrated when his girlfriend of three years broke up with him last year, and he made sure she knew it by harassing her with an almost endless slew of vengeful texts and Facebook messages, posting naked pictures of her online, and creating false “sex-for-hire” ads in her name which offered sex in return for crack cocaine. All of this, he claimed, was in the hopes of driving her to commit suicide.
He is extremely repentant now, however, and made a statement at his recent sentencing in which he apologized to both his ex and to the court for his actions, which he claimed were fueled by the excessive consumption of alcohol and marijuana. He expressed the hope that she would one day forgive him.
But Bay County Chief Circuit Judge Kenneth W. Schmidt was not entirely bought over. He pointed out to Monroe that he had a lengthy criminal history, which included convictions for four prior felonies and nineteen misdemeanors, and asked him pointedly, “When the heck are you gonna’ learn?”
The judge went on to chastise Monroe, telling him that his behavior was horrible and that in the future he could expect to be right back in prison again without some very serious changes in his life.
In November of 2014, Monroe accepted a plea deal offered by the prosecution and pled guilty to a single count of unlawful posting of a message on the Internet, which under Michigan law is a felony. In return, the prosecution agreed to dismiss the stalking charge, which is a misdemeanor.
Monroe was sentenced to 210 days in jail, although Schmidt did credit him with the 101 days he has already served and deferred a further 90 days. However, upon release Monroe will be required to participate in regular anger management classes, receive mandatory counseling for substance abuse, and will also be equipped with an electronic tether for 90 days.
Further conditions put in place by the judge include Monroe being required to get his GED, and the fact that he will be enrolled in the Swift and Sure Sanctions Probation Program, which is an intensive supervision program for high risk felony offenders with a history of probation violations.