WASHINGTON – A California man accused of climbing over a White House fence was released from jail Monday after appearing in Superior Court in Washington.
Secret Service officers said they arrested 54-year-old Jerome R. Hunter of Sacramento, California, about 10:25 p.m. Sunday after he climbed over a fence surrounding the executive mansion. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry.
Monday afternoon, a judge released him on the condition that received a mental health evaluation. Hunt will also be required to be monitored with a GPS device and was ordered to stay away from the White House.
According to court records, Hunter was apprehended by uniformed Secret Service officials after he made it over the fence. He was carrying a bag that was later determined to not pose a threat.
Hunt is scheduled to appear in court again May 12.
The Secret Service has been beset by a series of security lapses, including an incident last Sept. 19 in which authorities said a man with a knife jumped a fence and ran inside the executive mansion, looking for the president. It was the sixth time someone had jumped the fence in 2014 and the 16th in the past five years, according to the Secret Service.
Just last week, NBC Washington reported the National Park Service is expected to approve new steel spikes atop the White House security fence to discourage jumpers. The federal agency also is considering raising the fence to 10 feet high or adding a second fence, placing one inside the current one.
This comes in the wake of a series of fence-jumping incidents, including one in September of last year. In that incident, Omar Gonzalez jumped the North Fence and made it into the White House with a knife.
No additional information about Sunday’s incident has been released at this time.
On Monday morning, security on the south side of the White House here appeared even more strict that on the north side, on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the previous fence-jumping incidents happened.
Fencing flanked adjacent properties on 15th and 17th streets, along the Treasury Building and Old Executive Office Building. And Secret Service checkpoints control access to E Street, which runs between the White House and the Ellipse.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
