Judges: Despite 'calamity' of errors, bond companies did not violate rules in Bricen Rivers case

While a "calamity of human and institutional errors" occurred in the bonding and release of Bricen Rivers before his then-girlfriend Lauren Johansen was killed in Mississippi, the companies that posted his bond did not violate any rules, a panel of six judges ruled in an order published Monday.

The Nashville criminal court judges identified nine concerns with the bonding, release and GPS monitoring process that they believe need to be improved or corrected.

"The Courts do not find, however, that Brooke's Bail Bonding or On Time Bonding willfully violated any of the current terms or governing provisions for their operation in Davidson County, Tennessee, and therefore the Court does not find that it is in the public interest to suspend or terminate their current approval to do business," the judges wrote.

Rivers, 23, is charged with murder in connection with the death of 22-year-old Johansen in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Rivers posted bond on June 24 after being held nearly seven months in a Nashville jail on several charges, including aggravated kidnapping, related to what police described as a bloody attack on Johansen while the pair was visiting Nashville from Mississippi in December 2023.

Johansen's father and much of the Nashville community blamed her death on different aspects of Davidson County's justice system from the bonding companies to the clerk's office and sheriff's office.

In a special hearing on Aug. 15, all six criminal court judges convened and heard testimony from representatives of the bonding companies and others.

Brooke Harlan, owner of Brooke's Bail Bonding, said she was happy with the ruling.

"We are happy to have been exonerated by the Courts of any alleged wrongdoings and look forward to continuing to work with the Courts to ensure that something like this tragedy never happens again," she said in a statement.

When Judge Cheryl Blackburn lowered Rivers' bond from $250,000 to $150,000 — a decision reached in part because of Rivers' lack of a criminal history, Monday's order states — she required that he stay in Davidson County and wear a GPS monitor after his release. Agents of the two bonding companies signed the order that bound Rivers to those conditions on June 4, but they never saw the conditions. That was the first concern the judges pointed out.

Weeks later on June 24, when the bonding companies actually paid the bond and Rivers was released from jail, neither the Davidson County Sheriff's Office nor the bonding companies received a copy of the conditions from the State Warrant and Bond Office. This is because the Davidson County Clerk's Office failed to transmit them, Chief Deputy Clerk Julius Sloss said. This was one of the points of concern for the judges, who also noted that the clerk's office implemented safeguards to prevent this happening again.

Because the jail did not have the bond conditions, Rivers was released to the street, rather than to a bonding agent as required. He then called Brooke's Bail Bonding, who picked him up and still outfitted him with an ankle monitor, but at a different company than the one specified in the order Blackburn wrote.

That company, Freedom Monitoring Services, is run by Nakeda Wilhoite, also an employee at Brooke's Bail Bonding. Wilhoite did not set any exclusion zones — geographic areas where the defendant is not supposed to be — because she also wasn't aware of Rivers' bonding conditions. By June 28, though, Freedom Monitoring and the bonding companies became aware of Rivers' bonding conditions.

When Wilhoite convinced Rivers to return to Nashville on June 29, she did not surrender him to the jail as she is empowered to do under the law as a bonding agent. She testified she felt she was acting only in her capacity as a monitoring company, not a bonding agent. The judges wrote that "there appears to be an inherent conflict of interest for monitoring company personnel to simultaneously act as bonding agents absent a clear set of governing principles."

Rivers left Nashville two hours later. The bonding companies attempted to get Rivers to come back but were unable to. The battery on his ankle monitor started to die the morning of July 2, and Blackburn issued a warrant for his arrest.

Rivers was last tracked on Beach Boulevard in Biloxi. Johansen's body was found in the trunk of a car in Gulfport, Mississippi, on July 3. Police arrested Rivers around 11 p.m.

Some other concerns noted by the judges included the amount of time it takes for the clerk's office to transmit warrants to the sheriff's office, that Davidson County magistrate judges may be hesitant to accept into jail defendants who bonding companies say have violated their bond conditions and that the bonding companies didn't receive full payment from Rivers' family before he was released.

"Obviously a calamity of human and institutional errors occurred in the release process of the Defendant," the judges wrote. "Ultimately, however, the cause and responsibility for any violations of release conditions, including the commission of additional criminal acts, rests squarely with the Defendant himself."

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMe a lins .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Judges: Despite 'calamity' of errors, bond companies did not violate rules in Bricen Rivers case