Summary: Thomas Markle, accused of possessing child sexual abuse material, was ordered returned to federal custody after removing an ankle monitoring device that had been required as part of his home detention. A federal magistrate in Tampa granted prosecutors' request to revoke his release and ordered him detained without bond, while also directing a psychiatric evaluation to determine his mental competency to face prosecution.
Federal authorities and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said the 82-year-old was taken back into custody on Tuesday following a hearing in Tampa, Florida. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lindsay Saxe Griffin, presiding at that hearing, ordered Markle returned to federal detention without bond, according to the prosecutor's office where the criminal case is pending.
Markle was arrested and charged last Friday with a single federal count of possessing child sexual abuse material. The charging documents allege that the material included two explicit photographs of Markle posed with a naked underage girl, along with other images showing him with children in varying states of undress.
An FBI affidavit filed with the criminal complaint states that federal agents seized the material at issue as part of a larger cache recovered from storage units Markle had rented in Los Angeles since 2008. The documents describe the recovered items as slides, film negatives and books.
Commenting on the case at the time of the arrest, FBI Director Kash Patel said Markle "targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions."
At the time of his initial court appearance last Friday, Markle was residing at an assisted living facility in Lakeland, Florida, near Tampa. No plea was entered during that first hearing, and the judge allowed his temporary release from custody under strict conditions - namely, home detention and the wearing of an electronic monitoring device.
Federal prosecutors later informed the court that Markle had cut off the ankle bracelet overnight and asked that his home release be revoked and that he remain detained pending trial. Magistrate Judge Griffin granted that request on Tuesday, ordering him back into federal custody without bond.
In a separate but related action last Friday, Griffin ordered Markle to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is mentally competent to face prosecution. The judge said she had reasonable cause to believe Markle was suffering from some form of mental deficiency, citing in part his advanced age and what she described as a "lack of recall" demonstrated during his court appearance.
The federal criminal case remains pending in Los Angeles. With the defendant returned to detention and a competency evaluation ordered, further pretrial proceedings will determine the court's next steps.
Reporting is limited to the information disclosed in court filings and statements by federal prosecutors and the FBI as outlined above.