UPDATE: A mobile man accused of interfering with emergency communications pleaded not guilty on Thursday, June 15, 2023. Trenton Lisak was charged with interfering with public safety communications and drug possession.
Prosecutors allege he used expensive, sophisticated equipment from an apartment in Ryan Park Towers. Mobile County 911 officials said communications in downtown Mobile were nearly paralyzed on June 6 and were disrupted the rest of the week.
The judge set a preliminary hearing for Lisak on July 19.
Ability:
Mobile, Alabama. (WALA) - Interference from expensive, “sophisticated” black market equipment disrupted police and emergency service transmissions for much of last week, according to law enforcement officials.
Police arrested Trenton Edward Lisak Saturday on a charge of interfering with public safety communications, a Class C felony punishable by one to 10 years in prison. He also faces drug charges. Prosecutors said the FBI is also investigating.
"This is an unusual charge," Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood said Monday. "This is certainly something very serious. We need our law enforcement and first responders to be able to communicate, not just downtown but everywhere."
How unusual?
"This is a first for me," Blackwood said. "I don't recall any other case where this has happened - certainly not to this extent. That's a lot of equipment."
Lisak was arrested for theft, burglary, possession of a forged instrument and criminal mischief.
Mobile County District Judge Jennifer Wright set bail at $15,000, the recommended limit for the crime, and ordered 10 percent to be paid in cash. She also posted an additional $5,000 bond on the drug charge.
Additionally, the judge imposed a curfew between 8 p.m. 8 a.m. and ordered Lisak, 31, to stay away from the tower in Ryan Park downtown. Authorities said they found jammer device at the apartment complex that interfered with communications for all 57 law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies in the Mobile County Communications District.
That's also the home address listed on Lisak's booking information, but prosecutors told the judge investigators don't believe he lives there.
County Executive Robert Jackson described it as "very sophisticated cell phone jamming device placed in homes specifically designed to interfere with our frequencies."
Jackson added, "We actually had to modify our instrument to accommodate this."
911 system chief Charlie McNichol told Fox 10 News last week's outage effectively knocked out communications for a day.
"Last Tuesday this caused serious problems for the city centre," he said. "We actually have a tower site in Government Square. That's where the alarm came from. The first people who came here had serious communication problems."
Officials said it was unclear what the motive was. Blackwood said he had no idea what the defendant planned to do or where he obtained the equipment.
McNicholl said he didn't know if Lisak was just watching the chaos for fun, or if he was planning something more sinister and trying to disrupt communications as part of it.
"This individual was in possession of gps blocker that was purchased on the black market," he said. "It's illegal to even possess it. That's what's causing the problem."
Reprint to WALA.
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