A typo in jail records — a single digit — is one of the factors that kept Dana Lopez in the Pike County jail for more than a year as grand juries met and adjourned and nothing happened with her case.
Had the system not failed Lopez, she more than likely would have been released months ago.
Circuit Judge Mike Taylor ordered Lopez immediately freed Tuesday upon learning of the clerical error.
Taylor said Lopez was booked into the jail in December 2022, but the roster showed her booking date was December 2023. She was charged by McComb police with possession of a controlled substance, and her bond was $5,000.
According to a copy of the jail census conducted this month, her booking date was Dec. 19, 2023. But Taylor said Tuesday that she went into jail a year earlier than that, on Dec. 19, 2022.
Had her case been handled on time, more than likely she would have been offered a chance to enter drug court, and would have been released.
Interestingly, the same jail census also shows that Lopez’ case was presented to the grand jury on Sept. 7, 2022 — three months before her recorded arrest date.
“The court has reviewed the jail census and the conditions of bond on each person being held in the county jail,” he wrote in his order granting Lopez’ release. “Due to a clerical error showing the number of days on the inmate roster, Dana Lopez was not subject to judicial review on the Feb. 13, 2024, Jail Census. Upon learning that the inmate had been held longer than 90 days, the conditions of the defendant’s confinement were reviewed.
“On review of the number of days the defendant has been held in the county jail, the undersigned takes judicial notice of the fact that two Grand Juries have been empaneled and adjourned during that time without the case being presented.
“The defendant will be released from custody immediately.”
Taylor has been working with prosecutors, public defenders and jail staff to maintain a neglected jail roster that has revealed people languishing behind bars for months, if not years, as the cases against them stalled in the judicial system.
Officials this month conducted a new census at the jail and reviewed the status of everyone who had been held in the jail for more than 90 days. Lopez would have been included in this review, but the clerical error went undetected.
Two weeks ago, Taylor found eight more people like Lopez whose charges were never presented to a grand jury after they had been incarcerated for nearly a year or more and ordered them released. He said as many as 50 more people locked up now could be released if the current grand jury adjourns without taking up their cases.
The attention to the jail census comes as the county faces nearly two dozen lawsuits filed in federal court over jail conditions, including overcrowding and the fact that cases are not going before the grand jury in a timely manner.
But there are other issues beyond that. Another man was ordered immediately released with the other eight after spending more than seven months in jail despite the fact that the grand jury decided there wasn’t enough evidence to indict him on a murder charge.
One of the lawsuits facing the county was filed by a man who was homeless at the time of his arrest for carrying table salt that drug agents suspected was crystal meth in a plastic bag. He was held for 450 days even though an analysis determined he was never in possession of drugs.
Also, some of those in jail had never had public defenders appointed to represent them. Taylor said Tuesday that everyone held on a new charge who is facing indictment has had a lawyer appointed to their case.
