Image Credit: Metro Nashville Police Department, tvovermind.com & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
The bail bonding companies that released a man charged with three felonies for kidnapping and beating Lauren Johansen – his girlfriend at the time – in December 2023 are being sued for $150 million by the victim’s family.
Approximately six months after the vicious assault in which Johansen lost consciousness and feared for her life, Bricen Rivers traveled to Mississippi to find her, breaking the conditions of his bond which stipulated that he remain in Tennessee, specifically within Davidson County.
Johansen was found dead in the back of her car on July 3rd, 2024, in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Rivers, who was successful in getting his bond reduced by $100,000 down to $150,000 after several months of jail time, was granted the reduction by a judge primarily because Rivers had no previous criminal history and despite objections from the prosecution.
Under the Tennessee Constitution, nearly all criminal defendants, including those charged with violent felonies, are entitled to the opportunity to bail. State law empowers criminal courts to impose conditions, including geographic restrictions, on the bail of criminal defendants who have been charged with certain violent offenses in order to maintain public safety and to maintain the safety of the victims.
In Tennessee, the state contracts with private services to assure compliance with the financial conditions of bond. State law authorizes these private bail bonding companies to arrest, without a warrant, criminal defendants who violate the terms of their bond.
The conditions of the bond included that Rivers wear a GPS monitoring device to ensure that he remained in Davidson County but the bonding companies were not given a copy of the conditions.
According to the lawsuit, Rivers’ mother, Chelsa Rivers, sent Brooke’s Bonding $130 to pay for her son to travel to Mississippi by bus.
While Rivers was fitted for a GPS tracking device, no location restrictions were set. The monitoring company – owned by an employee of Brooke’s Bail Bonding – was aware of the location conditions four days after Rivers’ release when he was called back and fitted with a second device after technical issues with the first one.
The employee did not turn him in to police, despite knowing that Rivers had already crossed state lines.
Two hours after being fitted with the second tracker, Rivers left Nashville again and traveled once more to Mississippi. Before the battery died on the device, Rivers was tracked to Biloxi.
The lawsuit against the bonding companies alleges that Rivers was released even though he did not pay his full bond premium, and that the companies failed in their obligation to the court to protect Johansen.
The lawsuit states that despite knowing that Rivers had left Davidson County, none of the bail bonding companies contacted Tennessee authorities so that they could attempt to apprehend him. Likewise, upon realizing that Rivers had crossed state lines for a second time, authorities in Mississippi were not warned that a violent criminal had violated the conditions of his bond.
Johansen was also not contacted, nor any of her family, by the bail bonding companies with warnings that Rivers had returned to Southern Mississippi.
Last October a panel of six Davidson County judges ruled that a “calamity of human and institutional errors” led to Rivers’ release who is now facing three additional charges: taking possession of a motor vehicle, capitol murder, and tampering with evidence.
Despite noting nine different concerns with the way that Rivers’ bonding, release, and GPS tracking were handled, the panel determined that the two bonding companies involved had not violated any rules.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
