Why was a dangerous inmate serving a 15-40 year sentence in Michigan brought down to Scioto County to face a 10-year-old drug charge? That’s the question I had for Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman. His answer surprised me.
Talleon Brazil was doing time for carjacking and a list of other crimes in a Michigan prison when he was transferred to Scioto County to face a decade-old drug trafficking charge. The court set a $50,000 bail and despite the fact that his record had a hold on it that said he shouldn’t be released, Brazil’s family posted bail and he was let out. The Michigan Department of Corrections apprehended him on Sunday in Detroit.
But why bother transferring a man already serving a long sentence on an old charge? Prosecutor Tieman says it wasn’t his idea. Inmates have a right to demand a speedy trial at any time on outstanding charges. And that means that they must be transported to the county where the charges are filed to face trial.
Tieman says Brazil’s charges were originally filed back in March of 2009, the year before he was sentenced to 15 to 40 years of prison in Michigan for carjacking, weapons, and drug charges. The charges in Scioto County were serious – felony-level trafficking in Oxycontin. Tieman says had they been lesser charges, we might have simply dismissed them to save the trouble.
Sheriff Marty Donini says the process is frustrating and it seems like it would make more sense for counties to be able to put a hold on inmates serving time in other jurisdictions so that they could bring them to trial when they’ve finished their sentences. But like Tieman, he has no other choice than to comply with the law.
Why did Brazil want to face a judge in another state on 10-year-old charges? Donini says he told an officer transporting him that he hoped to get all of his outstanding legal problems cleared up. Other sources who work in corrections tell me that inmates sometimes make these requests simply for the change of scenery. Brazil has already been in prison for 10 years in Michigan.
Donini said that a breakdown between booking and releasing was behind the accidental release of the inmate. “Somebody messed up. The document was clearly in the inmate’s file. It’s black and white.” Donini said he’s already begun implementing new procedures to make sure a mistake like this won’t happen again. Donini also says that we didn’t know about the mistake until the jail administrator notified him on January 29 – more than a week after Brazil’s accidental release on January 21.
He says that while as the person in charge it’s ultimately his responsibility when mistakes happen, “When you have 80 people working under you, you can’t micro-manage.”
To get caught up, please reference these 2 prior stories.
