Bernalillo jail details mistakes that led to wrongful inmate releases

Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center officials say clerical errors and staff oversight led two inmates to be erroneously released from the jail on separate occasions last month.

In one instance, a probationary employee put the wrong case number into MDC’s database, leading to the inmate’s release, according to MDC. In the other instance, a staff member did not make sure the inmate was processed into pretrial services first.

MDC officials said it was the second mistaken release by the probationary employee, who started at MDC in November 2023, and that the other had not been reported.

Both employees were punished but not fired. MDC didn’t detail the discipline, saying “employee discipline matters” were exempt under an Inspection of Public Records Act statute.

MDC officials said they discovered a 2020 directive that ordered a secondary review of an inmate’s release, which officials said could have prevented both mistakes, was “no longer required.”

MDC spokeswoman Candace Hopkins said, “It is unclear to the current MDC administration why the 2020 directive was issued.” The facility leadership said the issue has been corrected.

“This discovery led to a revised directive being issued which now requires a secondary document review by a booking staff member prior to scheduling the release,” MDC Warden Steven Smith wrote in a review of both incidents.

A July 18 email from Smith to employees, obtained by the Journal, outlined the new directive: anytime someone processes an inmate release, “they MUST have a second person review the release packet to confirm it is valid and sign off on it.”

“There must be two signatures on all releases going forward,” Smith wrote in the email.

The inmate who was wrongfully released on July 2 — Anthony Jaramillo — was allegedly caught smoking fentanyl on the West Side on July 15 and was re-arrested, according to court records. The other — Ashante Pierrotti — was notified by MDC and came back to the facility to be placed on pretrial services.

There was a third mistaken release on July 24, but MDC has not given any details on how that incident happened.

The first release was on July 2. Smith wrote in a review that the probationary employee, a jail technician, “inadvertently” updated the MDC database with the same court case number for two separate cases in Jaramillo’s file.

Jaramillo had been ordered released in one case — the one which was entered twice — but not the other. Smith wrote that the “clerical error” led another employee to release Jaramillo, “not knowing the secondary case number was inaccurate.”

He said it wasn’t until July 10 when courthouse employees asked MDC why Jaramillo wasn’t at his in-custody hearing that the facility realized the mistake. Smith said someone should have been “double checking” the probationary employee’s work.

The employee responsible took full responsibility and told MDC officials she should have had “another set of eyes to catch my error,” but she felt confident doing a release, according to Smith. He said due to the 2020 directive that removed a secondary review, the employee was “left alone essentially with no safeguard.”

Furthermore, Smith said, “The fact that this is a probationary employee who has already had an erroneous release, her work should have been mandated to require a secondary signature.”

Hopkins, the MDC spokeswoman, said on May 15 the employee mistakenly released an inmate in a similar situation — ordered released in one case but not another. She did not give further details on the mistake but said the inmate was re-arrested on July 16.

Smith said on July 17, a different MDC corrections technician, who was hired by MDC in 2019, “neglected to ensure” that Pierrotti was held “for a third party to complete the court-mandated Pre-Trial Services.” Instead, Pierrotti was released.

He said the next day a court liaison was reviewing prior releases when they discovered Pierrotti had been erroneously released. MDC previously told the Journal that Pierrotti was called by staff and reported to Pretrial Services “and fulfilled the remaining requirements of his release.”

Smith said the technician took full responsibility and told MDC leadership that she must have mistakenly placed Pierrotti in “my release pile.”

In both mistaken releases, Smith said neither was forwarded to the facility’s Office of Professional Standards for investigation after the directive changes and respective staff’s “admission to the mistake.”

“Unfortunately, erroneous releases are something that every jail must contend with, in this specific incident, MDC has ownership in this erroneous release through the noted policy change,” he said.