Thomas Markle Back in Federal Custody After Cutting Ankle Monitor
Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is back in federal custody. Federal prosecutors said he cut off his ankle monitor in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Town & Country reported the latest step in his case.
An ankle monitor is an electronic bracelet that tracks where a person is. Markle was wearing one as a condition of pretrial release, the arrangement that lets a person stay out of jail while a criminal case moves forward. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lindsay Griffin found that he had broken the conditions of that release. She revoked it and ordered him kept in custody until the case moves further.
Markle is charged with one count of possession of child pornography, a federal crime. Prosecutors say he possessed child sexual abuse material, including photographs that show himself with minor girls. These are allegations. Markle has not been tried, and the case is still in the early stages.
The judge also ordered a psychiatric evaluation. The goal is to determine whether Markle is mentally competent to stand trial, meaning whether he can understand the charges against him and take part in his own defense. That question has to be answered before the case can go to trial.
If Markle is convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Federal courts set the actual sentence based on the charges, the facts of the case and federal sentencing rules, and the maximum is the most a judge can impose.
Markle's reported home is the Maravida Senior Living care home in Lakeland, Florida, a city in the central part of the state. The case is being handled in the U.S. federal court system, not in Britain, where the Markle family's public profile is best known.
For readers who have followed the family's story for years, this is a sharp change. Markle has been estranged from his daughter for years, and this case is now a matter of public court records. The next steps are the psychiatric evaluation and whatever hearings follow it.
