Woman Gets House Arrest in 2 Crashes

A 58-year-old Sepulveda woman was sentenced Friday to six months of probation under house arrest with electronic surveillance and ordered to pay $39,000 in restitution for two hit-and-run car accidents last year.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Kenneth Lee Chotiner required that Jean Edwards be outfitted with an electronic ankle bracelet as a condition of her probation. The device would signal authorities if she were to leave home without authorization.

Edwards must pay the cost of the electronic surveillance, about $10 a day, in addition to paying $39,000 to eight people injured in the crashes, Chotiner ruled.

“I really see this as one of the future options that judges are going to be using more and more with the jail overcrowding becoming so critical,” Chotiner said, referring to a federal court order that has resulted in some inmates being released from County Jail early because of crowding.

Chotiner said Edwards was involved in two hit-and-run accidents within a minute of each other the night of Aug. 24.

Edwards was driving north on Woodley Avenue at Roscoe Boulevard about 10:45 p.m. when her car rear-ended a car driven by Julie Simon of Van Nuys. The crash caused Simon’s car to hit a car driven by Susan Cody, also of Van Nuys. Simon, Cody and three passengers in their cars suffered moderate injuries, Chotiner said.

Edwards fled without stopping and her car broadsided a car that was crossing the intersection, Chotiner said. The driver of that car, Guadalupe Valenzuela of Encino, and two passengers were injured, he added.

A witness to the crashes took down the license number of Edwards’ car, and Edwards was arrested the next morning after the vehicle was traced to her address.

Edwards was charged with two misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run that carried a maximum sentence of 18 months in County Jail. She pleaded no contest to one count June 3 in a plea-bargain arrangement with prosecutors, Chotiner said.

Activated Monday

Edwards was to begin wearing the electronic anklet late Friday. The anklet, to be activated Monday, will send signals to an electronic device that is to be installed in her home, attached to the telephone line, Chotiner said.

Edwards was ordered to remain in the house except for work and one hour a week for shopping, Chotiner said.

If Edwards is 45 minutes late, an electronic alert will be sent to a monitoring company, which is to notify Chotiner, he said.

The electronic ankle shackle was first used in Los Angeles County in July, 1987, in the case of convicted slumlord Milton Avol of Beverly Hills. Avol was ordered to wear the device during 30 days of house arrest in a run-down apartment building he owned on Western Avenue.