A Hillsborough Superior Court judge directed the defense attorney to report any breath test violations to the court as part of a decision on whether a New Ipswich man charged with negligent homicide should continue to remain out on bail.

Travis Worth of New Ipswich is charged with negligent homicide and aggravated DWI after he allegedly crossed the yellow line on Route 31 in Greenville Dec. 1 and triggered a head-on crash that killed Kyle Tetreault, 35, of Wilton, and seriously injured Robert Tetreault. Court documents indicate that in the hours before the crash, Worth consumed five Captain and Cokes and a mai tai at two different restaurants and showed signs of intoxication at the scene.

Worth was released on personal recognizance bail Feb. 10, and as part of his bail conditions, is required to use a breath test device five times every day to ensure he is not consuming alcohol. The results of the tests are available remotely, and can be viewed by both the defense and prosecution. Worth appeared in court on Thursday after prosecutor and Assistant County Attorney Jonathan P. Dean filed a motion to revoke his bail, based, he said, on the court and prosecution’s inability to consistently monitor those daily test results.

“It seems to me, this really boils down to essentially two issues,” said Judge Jacalyn A. Colburn during the hearing on the motion. “The first is whether there has been a change in circumstances that warrants a revocation of Mister Worth’s bail, that’s the first question. And, if not, is there any kind of amendment to the existing bail order that would be appropriate?”

Dean said the testing process being used was unknown to him prior to it being offered as part of Worth’s bail conditions, and he wasn’t in a position at the time to make stipulations about how it should be monitored. He stressed the importance of regular monitoring for Worth, should he remain on bail, to ensure the safety of the public.

“Your honor, you did note that this program was extremely important, that the defendant clearly did need monitoring, and I think the defense is admitting the defendant needs to be monitored in this type of way,” Dean said.

However, Dean said it wasn’t appropriate for the prosecution to be responsible for ensuring those tests were done to show compliance with Worth’s bail orders.

“We are not pre-trial services, and we’re not in a position to monitor the defendant five times a day,” Dean said.

Dean requested that if there was not a way for the state and court to be notified in a timely manner of any violations, without having to monitor Worth’s testing themselves, that Worth be placed back into preventative detention pending his trial.

Worth’s attorney, Joseph Fricano, had written in court filings that the state had the same opportunity as the defense to view the reports from the testing device, and to be alerted to missed or positive tests. He said the reports came in a single email every morning with the previous day’s results, and it would not be onerous for the state to review them.

“This is obviously a very serious case. There are no winners, there are probably multiple losers in this case,” Colburn said.

She said despite stumbling blocks over communication on the testing reports, it did not change her opinion on granting Worth bail.

“However, I also think it’s equally important that he be monitored at that level, for obvious reasons – safety to the community, etc. So, I’m certainly not going to vacate the condition, because I think the condition was the condition that allowed me to rationalize releasing him, quite frankly,” Colburn said.

Colburn said she did not find that Worth had committed any crime or violated his bail conditions, and had, in fact, been complying with his requirements to submit multiple tests daily. She said she found the conditions to revoke his bail had not been met, but that issues with monitoring, as both the prosecution and defense learned to navigate the monitoring system, could count as a change in circumstance.

Colburn ordered Fricano to check those daily reports, and bound him to report any missed tests or any tests that were positive for alcohol. She requested that any violations be reported directly to the court clerk, as well as through a formal filing. She warned Worth that any violation of his condition to not consume any alcohol would be dealt with swiftly.

“I can tell you, if there is any violation, either a missed, or a positive, I’m going to hold a very prompt revocation-of-bail hearing. That will happen very quickly,” Colburn said. “I’m taking an affirmative representation that the court will take quick action.”

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.

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