Looks Like an Open-Door Policy : Two suspects in killings remain at large after being mistakenly freed from county lock-ups

Our criminal justice system is generating much in the way of debate nowadays. A couple of the significant questions: Just what’s wrong with the jury system? Will the overly broad “three strikes” law disastrously burden the courts, the jails and prisons and the taxpayers? The pundits could argue these issues and answer questions for months and still not satisfy everyone.

Alas, nothing of such heavy consideration concerns us here. Our subject is something quite simple, embarrassing, infuriating and frightening: the sudden propensity here for releasing people suspected in killings.

First, there was Anait Zakarian, being held in Los Angeles County’s Sybil Brand Institute for Women last month pending trial in the murder of a fellow travel agent from Glendale. Someone who ought to have been fired by now placed Zakarian on a computerized list of prisoners to be freed, and freed she was. Three days passed before anyone realized she was missing. She is still at large and could be anywhere.

Now it has been disclosed that Angel Moya, a Pacoima man suspected of killing a woman in a drunk-driving accident, was mistakenly freed from the county’s Central Jail, also in July. Moya was arrested by the California Highway Patrol after his blood alcohol level tested at more than twice the legal limit. Problem is, no one filed charges against him within 48 hours as required by law, and the jail was forced to let him go.

The highway patrol was responsible for meeting the deadline in asking for charges. A spokeswoman said Tuesday that the CHP had been seeking additional witnesses to bolster the case and that the officer assigned to the matter had only six months’ experience under his belt.

Eventually an arrest warrant was issued for Moya . . . while he was still in jail. But no one at the Central Jail was informed about the arrest warrant. Now the suspect, who was supposed to be facing manslaughter charges, has disappeared. Don’t the CHP, the jail and the district attorney’s office speak to one another?

We’re not talking rocket science here. Almost every viewer of television police and court dramas knows about the need to file charges within 48 hours of an arrest. And we depend on the authorities to know when suspects pose big flight risks. That seems not to have been recognized in either of these cases.

In the drunk-driving case, we are now forced to hope that the next news about the suspect involves an arrest, and not another fatal accident.