Sharper Eye Is Needed at the Jails

Convicted murderer Juan Espino should be sitting in a county jail awaiting sentencing to a state prison. But he’s free--somewhere--because the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released him last Thursday after a robbery charge against him was dismissed. Obviously somebody messed up, but so far no one is owning up to what could be a very dangerous mistake. Prosecutors describe Espino as a violent gangbanger. An investigation is underway to pinpoint what happened.

This is not the first time deputies have erroneously freed an inmate. Due to a clerical error last July, Anait Zakarian was released from the Sybil Brand Institute for Women while awaiting trial in the murder of a rival travel agent from Glendale. Zakarian was released after a clerk confused her name with another inmate’s, and she promptly disappeared.

A week later, another controversy arose after the release of a manslaughter suspect, Angel Moya. Jailers said charges weren’t filed before a legal deadline. That was disputed by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the California Highway Patrol, which had arrested Moya. Human error was blamed. Goodbye, Moya.

These are very isolated cases. Nearly 19,000 inmates are held securely in the county jails every day, and 250,000 over the course of a year. But the premature release of a convicted murderer raises questions about the inmate-tracking system and communications between the courts and the Sheriff’s Department, which provides the guards for both the courts and the county jails.

The latest incident may have been complicated by Espino’s age. He was 17 when accused of shooting a Hollywood drug dealer. He turned 18 last October, according to Sheriff’s Department records. Deputies initially insisted that Espino had been tried on the murder charge in Juvenile Court last year. A department statement, released last week, said: “All knowledge of his murder conviction remained concealed within the juvenile justice system.”

But the district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Espino on the murder charge, indicated he was convicted as an adult July 10 in Superior Court. During those proceedings, he was housed in a county jail. He was transported to the courtroom and guarded by the Sheriff’s Department.

Yet the latest information from the Sheriff’s Department indicates that at no time while Espino was in its custody--from Dec. 29 until his release on July 17--did the department have documentation that he was being held on a murder charge or that he had been convicted of homicide. After an unrelated robbery charge was dropped last week, he was released.

Maybe the jailers didn’t know where Espino should be, but somebody did. A day after he was sprung, an anonymous tip informed deputies that a convicted murderer was not where he belonged. Whoever made this mistake should take responsibility. Whatever went wrong should be fixed.