Those necessities might include to look for employment, pay utility bills or possibly go to the grocery store, depending on the individual&squo;s household circumstances.

Cheryl Modlin, director of Polk&39;s corrections office, says Abril&squo;s probation officer is in Henderson County. Generally, she says, house arrest persons are not allowed to go to church, but, if they do not have a job, they are allowed, with permission from their probation officer, to seek employment. Part of the conditions of any supervised probation is that offenders have employment, Modlin said.

Abril resigned as Polk County Sheriff the evening before he took the felony plea. He received a two-year sentence that was suspended by Judge Zorro Guice Jr. in Haywood County Court on Nov. 17. Abril also received the four-month house arrest and three years of supervised probation with another two years of unsupervised probation. Abril&squo;s supervised probation began on Nov. 17, the day he took the plea.

Modlin says currently the house arrest system is not set up with global satellite monitoring, but the state is currently working on that capability. Abril is wearing an ankle bracelet that is monitored through his home telephone and if he breaks curfew as granted by his probation officer, a signal is sent through the telephone to Raleigh, who in turn contacts Polk County probation officers, who are contacted to immediately respond.

Another requirement of Abril&squo;s supervised probation is that the probation office can make random home checks of Abril. He is also subject to drug and alcohol testing.