By Jamie Brockwell, The Evening Times (West Memphis, Tenn.)
An man charged with burglary and theft is back behind bars with additional charges in West Memphis after being released on the authority of a phony fax sent with information in its header showing that it was sent from a local fast food restaurant.
In West Memphis District Court, Tristian Wilson was set to appear for a bond hearing on the charges. When he did not appear, Judge William “Pal” Rainey inquired about his release and found that a jail staff member released Wilson on the authority of a fax sent to the jail late at night.
According to Assistant Chief Mike Allen, a fax was sent to the jail which stated “Upon decision between Judge Rainey and the West Memphis Police Department CID Division Tristian Wilson is to be released immediately on this date of October 30, 2004 with a waiver of all fines, bonds and settlements per Judge Rainey and Detective McDugle.”
Jail Administrator Mickey Thornton said that these faxes are part of a normal routine for the jail when it comes to releasing prisoners, however, this fax was different.
According to Allen, this fax was a fake. The header of the fax only contained the letters C.I.D. in bold type. It did not have the standard letterhead with the WMPD logo on it.
Allen also added that the detective’s name was spelled McDugle instead of McDougal. The detective’s name was typed and signed using that spelling at the bottom of the letter.
However, the phony letterhead and misspelling weren’t the only clues that the fax was bogus. The time and date stamp at the top of the fax shows that the fax was sent Saturday at 11:16 p.m. from McDonald’s on Missouri Street in West Memphis.
Despite the time of night, the discrepancies and the overall look of the fake fax, it was accepted. Shortly after it was received on Saturday, Wilson was released from jail.
Judge Rainey said that this was “off the scale” and issued an order during court to the jail staff to “Find out who accepted this fax from a hamburger joint to let this man out of jail.”
Thornton believes that the jail staff is not at fault in this case, and blames the release system and the receptionists at the jail facility.
“It’s not the jail’s fault. Anytime anybody is released from the jail, a release order comes from the reception area. It came to them from up front. They (receptionists) faxed it back to the jail and then the jail staff released him,” said Thornton. “The reception area is making decisions about releasing people. All of the files are up front.”
Thornton says that while a mistake was made in this case, it reveals another long standing problem in the system in the county for releasing prisoners.
“It goes back to our big problems about judges setting release orders and temporary bonds. It’s a big problem that needs to be addressed. Nobody should be released without a court order,” said Thornton.
Thornton said that a court order should be sent from a court clerk on any release, however there are circuit court judges in the county that only offer a phone call to release someone and when it doesn’t happen, “they get mad.”
Thornton admitted that this situation is an ongoing problem that the jail will have to correct.
“There needs to be a court order on any judge doing anything. It needs to be sent through a clerk. That means yes, you may have to keep someone in jail overnight or maybe even until Monday if it is on the weekend, but it needs to be changed to keep this from happening,” said Thornton.
On a brighter side to the jail foul-up, after Rainey discovered the man had been released in error, the West Memphis Police Department went to Wilson’s home at 507 South Avalon number 6 in an attempt to locate him. Not only did they re-arrest Wilson, but the items they found in his home linked him to other burglaries in the area.
“We did recover items from numerous burglaries at his home when we arrested him. There were several items in plain view from the Delta Ice House and Evening Times burglaries along with items from several other business burglaries which all occurred within a short period of time,” said Allen.
Because of the findings, Allen said that several local burglaries have been solved and that Wilson will receive additional charges.