Local News in Brief : Judge Won’t Release Accused DEA Agent

A Los Angeles federal judge rejected electronic monitoring of John Anthony Jackson on Friday and once again denied bail for the former Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

“I’m just not of a mind to experiment with this monitoring,” said U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. “You (Jackson) will remain detained.”

Jackson’s lawyer, John Robertson, proposed that his 39-year-old client wear a monitoring bracelet, which would broadcast 24 hours a day. If the signal was interrupted, Robertson said, a private monitoring service would notify authorities.

Hatter refused to release Jackson last week, declaring that he was not satisfied that Jackson could buy an expensive home and several businesses on the $30,000 or $40,000 yearly salary of a DEA agent.

Jackson and two other former drug agency agents, Darnell Garcia, 41, and Wayne Countryman, 45, were indicted by a federal grand jury in December on charges of conspiring to evade Internal Revenue Services taxes by laundering more than $600,000 through foreign banks. Garcia is still a fugitive. Countryman was freed on $120,000 bail.