A Nashville mother says she has paid more than $16,000 out of her own pocket to keep her estranged husband's court-ordered GPS monitor running, after he declared himself indigent and a monitoring company threatened to remove the device entirely. Gina Ehsani has been locked in court proceedings with Pejhman Ehsani since 2020, and she now uses a phone app that pings her whenever he comes within 1,000 feet.
Gina Ehsani told News Channel 5 Nashville that a court ordered Pejhman Ehsani to wear a GPS monitor four years before the story published, but he later declared he could no longer afford it. When the monitoring company that supplied the device planned to remove it, Ehsani says she agreed to pay $330 a month herself rather than lose the real-time alerts that track his movements. She described her situation as an unprecedented example of a victim footing the bill for a court-ordered safety measure meant to protect her from the person accused of threatening her.
Pejhman Ehsani faces an aggravated stalking charge and was accused of six violations of the order of protection over roughly two years, according to the station's report. Gina Ehsani said he was even able to walk behind her into a hearing on one occasion because he had reportedly done so before. She has attended 33 court hearings since 2020, per the same account, as the civil divorce and protective-order case has dragged through Davidson County courts.
The Financial Burden of Monitoring
Tennessee has an Electronic Monitoring Indigency Fund. Gina Ehsani says she pays $330 a month to keep the monitor in place.
The Debbie and Marie Domestic Violence Protection Act was signed by Governor Bill Lee in May 2024 and took effect that July. As detailed by SValleyNow.com, the law allows GPS monitoring for specified qualifying domestic-violence cases. The act is named for Debbie Sisco, 60, and her daughter Marie Varsos, 31, who were shot and killed in Lebanon, Tennessee, in April 2021 by Varsos's estranged husband, according to background reported by CapRadio.
Monitoring Companies in Ehsani's Case
In Gina Ehsani's case, the first monitoring company reportedly dropped Pejhman Ehsani after he allegedly threatened its staff, and she had to track down a second company to keep the monitoring in place.
The case took a sharp turn when a court revoked Pejhman Ehsani's bond before trial, and he later appeared in handcuffs at a court hearing. He has since pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of violating the order of protection and could face up to three years behind bars, with sentencing scheduled for the following week. Gina Ehsani said she would go the whole route and prepare for trial.
A Statewide Pattern, and a Push for Change
Domestic violence remains widespread across Tennessee. Law enforcement agencies statewide recorded 60,635 domestic violence victims in 2024, according to the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Tennessee has continued expanding its domestic violence protections since the Debbie and Marie Act took effect. Savanna's Law, enacted in May 2025, established a first-in-the-nation public registry for repeat domestic violence offenders managed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which officially launched on January 1, 2026, according to Freeman & Fuson. Hoodline previously reported on GPS monitoring rules in a separate Whitehaven domestic violence case that cited the same 2024 law.
Gina Ehsani says her children now have a safety plan in place in case of an attack or an armed intruder, underscoring how seriously she takes the threat even as she covers the cost of monitoring the man accused of stalking her. She has said she wants GPS monitoring to be financially accessible for all victims, not just those who can afford hundreds of dollars a month to keep their own safety measures running.
