HILLSBORO — Washington County’s top circuit judge is pushing back after District Attorney Kevin Barton last week faulted the court system for the release of a domestic violence suspect who then killed his wife and sister-in-law Nov. 16.

Presiding Judge Kathleen Proctor said in a letter Monday, Dec. 5, to Barton she was already investigating why clerks failed to send the coordinates for the family home of defendant Carlos Jimenez-Vargas to a GPS monitoring company, effectively rendering the ankle tracker he was wearing useless.

But she insisted it wouldn’t have mattered if a judge had imposed bail, as a deputy district attorney requested on Oct. 7, because Jimenez-Vargas likely would have posted the required 10%.

Barton and Proctor’s disagreement also turns on the consequences of Senate Bill 48, which went into effect Jan. 1. Under the bill, state lawmakers pushed courts away from automatically imposing cash bail, leaving the decision to judicial discretion. Proctor defended the law.

“Before adoption of Senate Bill 48, the defendant could have been released by posting 10% of the security amount without having to see a judge or having GPS or other released conditions imposed,” Proctor wrote.

Jimenez-Vargas, who was employed at the time of his arrest, would have likely been required to post $2,500 to $5,000 in bail under the old rules, Barton has estimated.

After his release in October, Jimenez-Vargas returned to the SW Scholls Ferry Road home twice, records show. On the second visit Nov. 16, he fatally shot his wife and mother of four, Gabriela Jimenez, and her sister, Lenin Hernandez-Rosas, before killing himself.

He had been arrested Oct. 6 on charges including fourth-degree assault, strangulation and menacing after officers learned he had allegedly beaten his daughter and had started loading a gun while telling his wife “they were going to end it,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

In her letter, Proctor pointedly highlighted that the district attorney hadn’t sought a preventative detention hearing for Jimenez-Vargas to keep him behind bars. His family member also could have applied for an Extreme Risk Protection Order allowing for his gun to be seized, she said.

“Victims in domestic violence cases may need greater support in their court appearances, and should receive resources and instructions on how and when to report violations of court orders to law enforcement,” Proctor wrote.

Barton said “the evidence we had at the time” didn’t meet the bar for a preventative detention hearing, which requires the use or threat of serious physical force.

The district attorney said expanding the criteria for preventative detention to all domestic violence hearings could solve the problem. Washington County prosecutors filed charges in 1,300 domestic violence cases last year, he said.

“The Court agrees that this is an issue that needs attention, and that there’s lots of room for improvement here to make this a better, safer process,” Barton added in a phone interview. “I wish it didn’t take an incident like this to get us there.”