Caitlin Panas was charged after a trio of Marseilles cocaine deals and given a notice to appear in court. After skipping a court date, she was arrested and placed on GPS monitoring. Authorities counted 22 violations of her pretrial release.

Now, police have recovered Panas’ ankle bracelet, but with no sign of Panas.

La Salle County State’s Attorney Joe Navarro said Friday that Panas won’t get another chance at pretrial release – not if he has anything to say about it.

Navarro’s office filed new charges against Panas, issued a warrant for her arrest and filed a petition asking the judge to hold her in jail once she’s caught.

“This case just illustrates everything that’s wrong with the SAFE-T Act and with giving pretrial release to high-risk suspects,” Navarro said.

Panas, 35, homeless, was already facing up to 30 years if convicted of any of three charges after drug agents conducted a series of controlled drug buys in May and June 2024. All three are Class X felonies carrying six to 30 years with no possibility of probation.

Before the SAFE-T Act, a bond of $100,000 was not uncommon for a large cocaine delivery, let alone three. But under the SAFE-T Act, Panas wasn’t held on the felony drug counts, which were filed in January. The bracelet was ordered only after she was picked up in May on a failure-to-appear warrant.

Nevertheless, Panas skipped a September court date, according to La Salle County Circuit Court records, and a sheriff’s deputy found her bracelet cut off on Oct. 9.

Fed up, Navarro last week authorized a charge of escape, a Class 3 felony carrying two to five years in prison, along with obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony carrying up to three years, in connection with providing a false name to an Ottawa officer investigating a disturbance.

Meanwhile, Navarro has renewed his appeal to Illinois lawmakers to modify the laws governing ankle bracelets for felony suspects. While he’s awaiting updated figures on the number of GPS bracelets that have been damaged or destroyed, La Salle County had reported damage to almost 1 in 5 units at the close of 2024.

Navarro reported that about 45 felony suspects were placed on GPS monitoring (not counting traffic offenders), and eight of them illegally removed their bracelets and absconded, a failure rate of 18%.