[Andre] Smith got out faster because he had an attorney who made inquiries on his behalf. Still, he said he's not happy that his pleas of innocence went unheeded for so long at the jail.One of the Dallas DNA exonerees, James Giles, was initially arrested because he had the same name as the actual suspect in a similar, Kafka-esque identity mix-up that cost him ten years in prison and another 14 as a registered sex offender before his name was cleared. Some of these cases take a lot longer than a week to sort out.
"They never verified anything, even when I asked them to," Smith said. "I was told, 'Everyone says it's not them.'"
Smith was pulled over by a Dallas police officer and arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge as well as the fugitive warrant. He said the officer told him he didn't think it was him but that he'd let the jail sort it out.
The suspect wanted by Georgia looked nothing like him, Smith said, and had a teardrop tattoo under his left eye. He said no one told him what the charge was.
Luckily for him, his friend's wife is a lawyer. Regina Moore said the sheriff's intake department should have notified the fugitive unit immediately so they could obtain fingerprints from Georgia. But Moore said the slow-moving jail bureaucracy hindered her efforts to clear up the situation.
The fugitive officers work regular business hours and no one can help on the weekends, she said. The person she needed to speak with was never in the office, she said, and different departments within the sheriff's department don't communicate well with each other.
"I don't think the right hand is talking to the left hand," Moore said.
Eventually, the fugitive squad got the prints from Atlanta and realized they had the wrong guy, she said. "Unfortunately, you have to keep going down there. Otherwise, they'll drop the ball," Moore said.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Identity mix-ups at Dallas jail can take a week to sort out, or decades
At the Dallas County Jail, inmates who're arrested due to an identity mix-up, even in serious cases, have trouble getting the system to document and rectify the error. Kevin Krause at the Dallas News on Wednesday published the story of two jail inmates recently held for a week or so apiece when the system really meant to arrest somebody else. Bureaucratic delays kept fingerprints from revealing the mix-up, and naturally nobody believed the inmates who insisted they'd got the wrong guy. Of the two, writes Krause:
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6 comments:
"Smith was pulled over by a Dallas police officer and arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge as well as the fugitive warrant. He said the officer told him he didn't think it was him but that he'd let the jail sort it out."
It appears the originating agency had "packed the record" with sufficient identifying information.
The arresting officer's PC affidavit would make for interesting reading as it relates to the identifiers provided by Georgia compared to the person in custody.
One other nore Grits, in this day and age fingerprints can be sent instantly by email or fax.
There are no bureaucratic delays. It's just plain lazyness which equals "deliberate indifference."
Retired LE
lucky law enforcment idiots! since i think anyone in a situation like this has every legal and moral right to remove themselve from said illegal inprisonment anyway they can using whatever means is necessary upto and INCLUDING letal force!
This needs to be added to list of misdeeds that require renumeration to the victim, retraining of the officers and firing of the people in charge.
Jail, and law enforcement, public bureaucracies...are supposed to actually WORK.
These folks are destroying the reputation of good and decent government employees who have been called to serve the public.
There's no PC affidavit required for a fugitive warrant arrest. You cannot compare fingerprints from a fax machine with any degree of certainty due to the low quality. Give it a shot sometime knowing you are going to have to defend that in court. Is that a pixel or a friction ridge? There does seem to be a degree a laziness involved in verifying the identity of the wanted person versus the person in custody. A phone call and emailed photo probably could have done it. But the detention for further investigation is perfectly lawful.
@ 3:15 said There's no PC affidavit required for a fugitive warrant arrest. But the detention for further investigation is perfectly lawful.
It's not a jailer's place to to investigate. It's the arresting officer.
Technically you are right about the PC affidavit however when the arrest is made w/o warrant, a complaint is required from the arresting officer and the accused must be taken before a judge or magistrate with all practicable speed.
I don't think 7 days qualifies.
Arrest Without a Warrant
Article 51.13 Uniform Criminal Extradition Act
Sec. 14. The arrest of a person may be lawfully made also by any peace officer or private person, without a warrant upon reasonable information that the accused stands charged in the courts of a State with a crime punishable by death or imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, but when so arrested the accused must be taken before a judge or magistrate with all practicable speed and complaint must be made against him under oath setting forth the ground for the arrest as in the preceding section; and thereafter his answer shall be heard as if he had been arrested on a warrant.
Commitment to Await Requisition; Bail
Sec. 15. If from the examination before the judge or magistrate it appears that the person held is the person charged with having committed the crime alleged and except in cases arising under Section 6, that he has fled from justice, the judge or magistrate must, by warrant reciting the accusation, commit him to the county jail for such time not exceeding thirty days and specified in the warrant, as will enable the arrest of the accused to be made under a warrant of the Governor on a requisition of the Executive Authority of the State having jurisdiction of the offense, unless the accused give bail as provided in the next section, or until he shall be legally discharged.
Hey here is a very useful tip to avoid confusion at the Dallas County Jail.....
Don't break any laws and I promise that you will not get lost in the shuffel......
Oh bye the way here is another couple of useful tips as well....
Don't squat with your spurs on, and ALWAYS drink upstream from the herd.
Have a Great Day, and come back to see us now. ya' hear?
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