Clerical Slip Cited in Release of Killer

Sheriff Sherman Block on Wednesday blamed the recent erroneous release of a convicted murderer on a clerical error by the county Probation Department, but added that the mistake exposed “a defect in the total system” of keeping track of inmates.

At his monthly press conference, Block said law enforcement officials have already begun a series of meetings to come up with ways to avoid further gaffes like the one that resulted in the mistaken release of Juan Espino days after his July 10 conviction for the 1994 murder of a Hollywood drug dealer.

Espino, now 19, was set free last month by the Sheriff’s Department because jailers never received paperwork on the murder charges from the Probation Department in late 1995, Block said.

Jailers thought he was in custody merely on unrelated robbery charges, and let him go after that case was dismissed July 17.

Even though the Sheriff’s Department had housed Espino in its jails since December, transported him repeatedly to court and guarded him in a downtown criminal courtroom for more than two weeks during his murder trial, Block said jailers had no way of knowing that Espino was ultimately convicted of murder because of the earlier clerical error by probation personnel.

A Probation Department spokeswoman acknowledged Wednesday that her agency had not forwarded information about the murder case to the Sheriff’s Department last December, but assumed that jailers would know about the murder charge as Espino’s case made its way through the courts this year.

“It was available to us and in our [computer] system and our assumption was, because the sheriff transported for us, it was available for them too,” said Trula Worthy-Clayton, bureau chief of juvenile institutions for the Probation Department. “We later discovered from the sheriff that that was not information they had.”

Espino should be in jail awaiting sentencing Monday for first-degree murder.

The Probation Department, which had initially housed Espino in Juvenile Hall, informed the Sheriff’s Department of the robbery charges when it turned him over to county jailers last December. However, probation officials never specifically informed the sheriff about the murder charges, Block said.

“Ultimately, the robbery charges were dismissed against this individual, and since this was the only order on which he was remanded to our custody, he was released,” said Block, “which is consistent with the procedures that are in place.”

“This is a case of a human error, a clerical error,” the sheriff continued. “Nevertheless, it does . . . point out a defect in the total system.” The sheriff said he wants to “develop a process so that if one component of the system perhaps does make an error, a clerical error, that somewhere else in the system it will be picked up.”

According to a one-page sheriff’s memo released to reporters Wednesday, an investigation of the mix-up showed that there are also ways to decrease “operational errors” in the Sheriff’s Department system of keeping track of prisoners.

Commander Daniel L. Burt said that “the changes haven’t been 100% defined yet,” but that one will concern communication among various law enforcement agencies.

“We really need to redouble our efforts to fully and clearly communicate the information we each possess to one another,” said Burt. “The best thing I can say in Mr. Espino’s case is the sun, moon and stars lined up to his benefit.”

For several days after Espino’s release, sheriff’s officials said they believed that he had been tried for murder in Juvenile Court last year. As it turned out, Espino had been tried for murder in Superior Court within days of his mistaken release.