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Murder suspect accidentally released

Posted by Deray28 • 8/08/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: if they only had a brain, murder, murder suspect, oops

Authorities say that an error made by a Maricopa County court clerk caused the early release of a man about to be on trial for murder.

Albert Sermeno, a 23-year-old who was serving time at the Maricopa County jail for auto theft, was released back into society June 19th after finishing his sentence.

Unfortunately, Sermeno is also the suspect in the 2006 murder of a 47-year-old man, and is facing trial for first-degree murder.

A Superior Court judge gave instructions to the Department of Corrections not to release Sermeno. But the DOC literally didn't get the memo.

"Despite the office's best efforts to generate over 2,000 minute entries per day, protocol was not completed in one of two of the defendant's cases where the court issued a ruling on Sept. 22, 2008," says Aaron Nash, spokesman for the Maricopa County Clerk of the Court.

Read more...
blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2009/08/authorities_say_a_superior_co...

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Un-frakking-believable!

I'm sure that the guy is long gone from the state given that he was released last month. I wonder if they are putting his face on the news in other states, though. Will he appear on the "most wanted"?

I agree with the blogger, how can they still rely on paper? I agree that there should be a copy of every trial-related decision in paper but, there should be other methods to check the inmates authorization to leave the premises.

User Comments

8/08/09

siralmo

BAHAHAHA!! good on'em

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8/08/09

Deray28

I posted this late last night and almost no-one was here. So, I'm bumping it that way more people get the chance to read it

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8/08/09

Jeunelle

Wow somebody goofed. This seems to happen from time to time too.
Security needs to be a bit tighter or some will slip through the cracks.
They could be sitting right next to you in the trains and buses.

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8/08/09

MadameX

I'm surprised that anyone finds this surprising. Of course, I live near Chicago, so this is hardly the first time I've heard of someone charged with a serious crime simply walking away from the jail. I strongly suspect that anyone entering 2,000 orders a day is going to make a few mistakes here and there. It's unfortunate that the mistake was made in a serious case like this, but the fact is that they occur every day and the only reason we're hearing about this one is that it happened to be a murder charge.

In most states, there are several thousand people who have been charged with DUI and failed to appear in court simply going about their lives--in most cases, the warrants are just never served. I'm only familiar with statistics for DUI cases, but I suspect that the same applies to many other crimes.

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8/08/09

Rozie818

Bump

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8/08/09

Deray28

Thanks Rozie!

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