Thomas Markle Ordered Back to Jail After Cutting Off Ankle Monitor
A federal judge in Tampa ordered Thomas Markle, the 82-year-old estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, held without bond after prosecutors said he cut off the electronic monitor he was required to wear while awaiting trial on a federal child sexual abuse material charge.
A federal judge in Tampa ordered Thomas Markle back into custody without bond on Tuesday after prosecutors said he cut off the electronic ankle monitor he was required to wear as a condition of his release.
Markle, 82, the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was arrested after authorities learned he had removed the device at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said. He appeared in federal court in Tampa later in the day.
“Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions,” Essayli said.
Arrested Friday on federal charge
Markle was arrested Friday, Nov. 6, in Lakeland, Florida, and charged with one federal count of possession of child sexual abuse material. No plea was entered at his first court appearance. The judge released him on home detention with the monitor and ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.
According to an FBI affidavit cited by prosecutors, agents seized about 78 items from storage units in the Los Angeles area that Markle had rented since 2008, including slides, film negatives and books containing suspected child sexual abuse images. The affidavit said the material included two explicit photographs of Markle posed with a naked underage girl.
Prosecutors asked Monday to revoke his release, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Lindsay Saxe Griffin agreed, writing in her order that Markle had been “tampering with and removing his ankle monitor” and that his “housing situation” had become “untenable.” His lawyer, Mary Claire Wolf, had sought to keep him out of custody but had not found a suitable place for him to stay, according to a hearing summary.
What happens next
Authorities have not said where Markle will be held while the case proceeds ahead of a likely transfer to California, where the charge was filed. The competency exam is still pending. Essayli told The Associated Press he did not know why the monitor was removed.
CNN reported that Markle had a stroke earlier this year while living in the Philippines and had his left leg amputated, which forced his return to the United States. Meghan has said she was “deeply distressed” by the allegations and that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about her father had been sent to police in London in 2019.
Reporting based on coverage by Reuters and CNN.
