This is ridiculous.

Justice, 49, was arrested after he allegedly drove to Muskego to meet and have sex with a 17-year-old girl he connected with through an online dating site. Over many months of text messages, which began when the girl was 16, Justice made repeated offers to pay for sex and sought a “sugar daddy” arrangement with the teen. He faces up to 50 years in prison and $200,000 in fines if convicted on the two felony charges.

Justice’s attorney, Steven Kohn, who asked for a modification to a condition of his bail, argued that since Justice is unemployed, he needs to use the Internet to find work. As a condition on his bond, Justice was barred from accessing the Internet “for any purpose other than for employment during normal work hours,” according to court documents.

Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Lesli Boese objected, noting Justice would not be monitored.

“If he was accessing it in the workplace, they have the ability to monitor that but outside the workplace, there is no ability to monitor his usage,” Boese said.

The reason for restricting his access to the internet as a condition of his bail is because he used the internet as a means to perpetrate his alleged crime. He found his alleged victim trolling hookup sites on the internet. It is perfectly reasonable.

I could almost see the reasoning in allowing him to use the internet to find a job. After all, while he is unlikely to find a professional job, I do want him to find work somewhere. That is preferable to him getting on the public dole. But as the prosecutor points out, there is no way to monitor his usage. The only way he would get caught violating his parole is if he comments or logs into a site that he shouldn’t be on and someone sees it and reports it. Can’t Justice look for a job the old fashioned way with a little shoe leather and a phone?

If the judge thinks that Justice needs access to the internet to look for a job, couldn’t the judge at least make it somewhat possible to monitor him? Perhaps he could come into the police department and use a department computer for that purpose. Or perhaps the public library. Or even require that the police install monitoring software on his computer. It’s common for parents to have monitoring software on their kids’ machines – why not on Justice’s?

Waukesha County Court Commissioner Thomas Pieper, who ruled that Justice could use the internet, should be ashamed of himself for lifting this bail restriction.