A Pope County man arrested Thursday morning after a federal indictment accused him of extortion and stalking was released from federal custody Friday by a magistrate judge who cautioned him that any infractions of his pretrial release conditions could land him back in jail for the duration of his case.
Jerry Lee Honaker III, 27, of Russellville, appeared for the second time in less than 24 hours before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe on Friday morning for a bond hearing after which he was released from detention at the Pulaski County jail into the custody of his grandfather, Jerry Honaker Sr., also of Russellville.
Honaker had appeared for arraignment on the indictment Thursday afternoon, just hours after his arrest.
At that time, Volpe appointed KenDrell Collins with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock to represent him and set a trial date of Dec. 5 before U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, who is prosecuting the case, did not oppose Honaker's release, but asked for a number of restrictions to ensure his internet and telephone use would be strictly curtailed or closely monitored by the U.S. Probation Office to ensure the security of any victims or witnesses in the case.
Collins objected to that provision, arguing that the conditions would be more restrictive than necessary to ensure Honaker's compliance with his release conditions.
"This case involves allegations that Mr. Honaker was reaching out, in our case, to a minor victim," Bryant said, "seeking to extort her for sexually explicit pictures because he had obtained other pictures of her."
Bryant said a number of other women had also made allegations that a person, "to which we have tracked back to Mr. Honaker," had made threats to them as well, both over the phone and on social media.
"In an effort to ensure that this behavior is not going on, that would be our request," she said.
"Either no internet access or, if he does have a phone, that it be monitored by the probation office."
Bryant noted that a cellphone belonging to Honaker had been seized and during a search of the contents, investigators found that "some of the accounts that were reaching out to these women were located on Mr. Honaker's phone."
Collins told Volpe that he had not had the opportunity to review all of the evidence against his client but said under the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which requires defendants to be released under the "least restrictive means possible" to ensure compliance, prohibiting internet access would be too restrictive.
"In this situation, not allowing him to have access to the internet is far more restrictive than necessary," Collins said. "He works as a quality inspector and regularly uses the internet on his job."
"Why not allow Probation to monitor, then?" Volpe asked.
"Obviously, he's on board with that to get out," Collins said. "But, we do feel like that's a bit more restrictive than necessary."
Volpe asked Pre-trial Services Officer Ryan Clodfelter if the probation office would have any concerns if he ordered monitoring software to be installed on any computers Honaker might use for work.
"There's a lot that goes into that condition as far as other devices in the home and things like that I haven't had the opportunity to discuss with the third-party custodian or the defendant," Clodfelter said.
He added that any phone Honaker might use would have to have an Android operating system, that an iPhone would not be suitable.
"They seized the only phone he had at the moment," Collins said, in response to Volpe's question regarding what type of phone Honaker was using.
"He would have to get another phone."
"I think it's a reasonable condition," Volpe said.
"Frankly, I think it's a condition that would be in his best interest to not be tempted to engage in anything nefarious while on bond and get into a revocation situation."
Any violations of his orders, Volpe said, could potentially bring about a number of potential consequences.
"First is, you get revoked and you have to sit in county jail," Volpe said.
"Even though I gave you a December trial date ... it's quite unlikely the trial is going to be in December. Likely, it could be two or three years from now and you would be just sitting in county jail waiting for your day in court."
The judge warned Honaker also that he could incur additional charges which could trigger an additional 10-year prison term and fine of $250,000 on top of any penalty he might incur should he be found guilty of the current offenses.
If convicted, Honaker could face a maximum penalty of 10 years on the stalking charge and two years on the extortion charge.