Man accused of killing girlfriend never got a court ordered ankle monitor, here’s why

He had been in jail ever since until Judge Cheryl Blackburn lowered his bond from $251,000 to $150,000 in April. She issued a court order that said Rivers was supposed to get an ankle monitor, but none of that happened.
A man accused of murdering his girlfriend was released from a Davidson County Jail without a court ordered ankle monitor.
Published: Jul. 8, 2024 at 6:39 PM CDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) -A man accused of murdering his girlfriend was released from the Davidson County jail without a court-ordered ankle monitor. Sources said the county is now looking into who dropped the ball and allowed the same man to allegedly kill her.

22-year-old Lauren Johansen was found dead in Mississippi last week. Her boyfriend, 23-year-old Bricen Rivers, was accused of kidnapping her back in December on a trip to Nashville.

He had been in jail ever since until Judge Cheryl Blackburn lowered his bond from $251,000 to $150,000 in April.

She issued a court order that said Rivers was supposed to get an ankle monitor, stay in Davidson County, and not go near Lauren Johansen, but none of that happened.

The order also said Rivers should be released to a bonding company between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. He must also get a GPS monitor across the street from the jail at Tracking Solutions before 4 p.m.

The State Trial Court Administrator, Bart Pickett, said Rivers was released at 4:05 p.m. on June 24 and never showed up to Tracking Solutions.

WSMV4 spoke with Brooke Harlan with Brookes Bail Bonding, one of the companies that paid Rivers’ bail. She said when Rivers was let out of jail on June 24, he called her office. They had an agent pick him up and get Rivers a monitor through Freedom Monitoring Services since Tracking Solutions was closed.

In a court report Freedom Monitoring said because of the time there was no court order available. They also set the zone to allow Rivers to go to Mississippi because he told them that was where he was going.

Pickett said on June 28, Stephanie Krivcher, Rivers’ probation officer, reached out to Tracking Solutions about Mr. Rivers. That’s when she found out Rivers never reported to their office for a monitor and a violation report was sent to the District Attorney’s Office.

That same day Freedom Monitoring said Rivers’ monitor gave a “no communication alert” and he was contacted. Rivers came back to Nashville, the monitor went through troubleshooting, and a new monitor was placed on him.

They also said on July 1st his monitor went down to 6%, Rivers was called to charge his monitor and complied.

Freedom Monitoring said on July 2 the battery on Rivers’ monitor was low and he was asked to charge it, but the battery died. They reached out to Rivers but got no response and his mom said she had not seen or spoken to him. The next day Johansen was found dead.

A court date was set for July 2 and a warrant was issued for Rivers to be held without bail due to him violating his court order. That same day Freedom Monitoring said the GPS monitor on Rivers was dead.

WSMV4 also got a copy of Rivers’ release documents from the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. The Criminal Court Clerk’s Office wrote it up but said nothing about a monitor for Rivers’ release. The DCSO said that is typically noted.