Sheriff under fire over freed inmate

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A man accused of stabbing his wife at a supermarket, was supposed to stay locked up. But a clerical error set him free, and now, the sheriff is coming under fire.

County lawmakers are looking for answers, but they found it's not as simple as "A-B-C." Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard was in the hot seat on Thursday, fielding questions from inquiring minds.

Sheriff Howard and jail superintendent Robert Koch answered questions about the mistaken release of an inmate from the correctional facility in Alden earlier this month.

Koch said, "This inmate was released through a paperwork error. And everyone who was working at the time believes he is correctly released."

The mix-up involving 32-year-old Awet Gebreyesus began when a civilian clerk mistakenly misread the suspect's paperwork, the sheriff's office says. He's accused of stabbing his wife at a Wegmans store on Amherst Street in January.

Instead of being released, Gebreyesus should have been held on an attempted murder indictment. But the information did not get into the computer system. Howard says a number of factors likely played a role, including depleted staffing levels.

"Five employees have quit from that records area in the last year. One of them, and probably all of them, certainly one of them said, 'It's just because I can't work that many hours,'" explained the sheriff.

Staffing and overtime issues were raised before the committee.

Legislator Timothy Hogues said, "The value of life for those sheriffs, and the mistakes that are made as a result of exhaustion is unacceptable."

County lawmakers are aware of staffing and overtime issues - but can they help.

"We have this constant tug between needs and resources. We have a new county executive now and he's going to come forth with a budget come this October and we'll see how he balances needs and resources," said legislator Kevin Hardwick.

The inmate in question was recaptured and now the incident is under investigation. The sheriff says one of the things that could improve inmate recordkeeping is a new computer system.

"If City Court is using a computer. They are, and that can talk to our new computer, which they can't. When a records clerk writes the commitment order from that court it would automatically show up in our system," Howard says.

He's hoping that his appearance before the legislature gets the ball rolling on some of the resources needed to improve inmate record tracking.