Glitch Frees Woman Jailed on Kidnap, Holdup Counts

A “computer glitch” has apparently led to the mistaken release of a kidnap and robbery suspect from a jail facility here, authorities said Wednesday.

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Casey said Dorinda Carol White, 21, of Leonard Town, Md., who was arrested Dec. 23 in Barstow, along with a male companion now being held in the same jail facility, was accidentally freed Jan. 7.

“Right now it seems it could have been a computer glitch,” Casey said. “Simply put, the paper work that should have held her in custody never followed her from Barstow to San Bernardino.”

A car containing White and her companion, James Manning McRay, 21, also of Leonard Town, was stopped in downtown Barstow by California Highway Patrol officers on a routine traffic violation, when another woman in the vehicle began screaming that she had been kidnaped in Las Vegas, authorities said.

Belinda Staubs, 24, was abducted Dec. 21 from the florist shop in the Nevada city where she was employed and the kidnapers used her late-model Pontiac as a getaway car, Las Vegas police said.

After the arrests, a Barstow municipal judge decided to dismiss local charges of kidnaping and auto theft against McRay and White after learning that Nevada authorities wanted to try them, Casey said.

“They were transported back to San Bernardino on Jan. 6 for the purpose of awaiting extradition proceedings,” Casey said.

But when the prisoners arrived at the San Bernardino Central Detention Center, there was nothing in their booking papers to indicate that they were wanted in Nevada, the sergeant said.

“Believing there was no reason to hold her, White was released the following morning,” he said.

McRay’s paper work, however, showed that he was wanted on separate charges in Maryland and he remained in custody, police said.

“At this point, it’s apparent an error was made, and it is our responsibility to find out how it occurred and keep it from happening again,” Casey said.

Casey said an all-points bulletin has been issued for White, whom he described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing 137 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He said she wears large, plastic, round-framed glasses, with rose-tinted lenses.

“We’re going to get her. No doubt about it,” the sergeant said.