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State attorneys are preparing to pay $6 million to the families of two women who were killed by a man released from custody with an ankle monitor that had been set up to fail.
The deaths of Gabriela Jimenez and Lenin Rosas Hernandez on Nov. 16, 2022 exposed a grave communication error between the Washington County Circuit Court’s pretrial release office and the GPS tracking vendor Vigilnet, according to depositions and emails released during litigation.
Oregon will now resolve several circuit court and federal lawsuits by paying the families $3 million each. Vigilnet has also reached a confidential settlement with the families.
The killer, 46-year-old Carlos Jimenez-Vargas, had been arrested for strangling his wife, Gabriela Jimenez, in October 2022. A judge ordered his release but banned him for visiting his wife’s home in Hillsboro, with GPS monitoring to ensure compliance.
But a pretrial release officer never provided the address to Vigilnet, and Vigilnet never asked for the missing information.
“They put an electronic monitoring device on somebody that did nothing more than track, without ever setting off any alerts when he was near the victims,” said John Coletti, who alongside attorney Hala J. Gores represented Rosas Hernandez’s estate.
“It was a disaster waiting to happen,” Coletti said.
Court records show Jimenez-Vargas prowled outside the Southwest Scholls Ferry Road home for about 15 minutes on Nov. 14, 2022. Had the address been flagged in the system, the release office would have received an email alert within a minute.
Instead, Jimenez-Vargas returned two days later and fatally shot Jimenez, 43, and her young sister Rosas Hernandez, 38. The killer then turned the gun on himself.
In depositions, court release officer Rachel A. Clark said she hadn’t been trained to provide Vigilnet with addresses for exclusion zones. She also said she didn’t have access to a database with victim information while her background check was pending.
Vigilnet CEO Jake Dawes said in a deposition transcript that employees were trained to follow the release officer’s referral form precisely and “not exercise discretion.”
The company didn’t respond to a request for further comment.
Richard Moellmer, Washington County’s court administrator, said in an interview that the release office had been swamped with cases in 2022 after state lawmakers did away with automatic cash bail and made release from custody the default option.
The office has since staffed up from two to 10 release officers, and in the wake of the double murder expanded release officer shifts from the standard workweek to seven days a week, 15 hours a day.
The circuit court and Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a $750,000 federal grant earlier this year allowing deputies to monitor Vigilnet alerts 24/7 for cases involving domestic violence, he said.
“The expansion of our coverage hours means better service going forward, and better protection for the community and victims,” Moellmer said.
Gabriela Jimenez and Lenin Rosas Hernandez were born in California but grew up attending Hillsboro schools and later graduated from Portland State University.
Both had worked as substitute teachers, and Jimenez went on to work in human resources, while Rosas Herndanez worked as a claims adjuster and at her husband’s construction business.
Jimenez left behind four children. Rosas Hernandez was survived by three children and her husband.
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