Good question. 
Posted on 02/19/2005 11:53:10 AM PST by Willie Green
CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- An inmate mistakenly released by Ohio authorities arranged his own way back to the Colorado prison where he has to serve two more years.
The Stark County jail let Ricky Lee Claycomb go on Tuesday after he was acquitted of a rape charge. His jailers never saw the paperwork to ensure his return to Colorado, the sheriff said.
So Claycomb, 37, took a bus back to the state where he has been serving a robbery sentence and, after visiting his mother, had a relative drive him to the prison.
"He was nice enough to call ahead," said Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections. "I think he was afraid we would shoot him or something, but it wasn't his fault Ohio let him go."
~~~SNIP~~~
"He told them at the jail that he was supposed to be taken back to Colorado," said his mother, Jill Claycomb. "He said they told him he was done in Canton and it was his problem to get back."
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
ping
Kind of hard to resist a short trip as a free man.
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
I hope he took a minute to get a few beers and a shot.
Good, heads-up play by the felon. With this under his belt, he might do well on the "outside" later.
BTTT
They should meet this guy at the jail door with a parole board and paperwork granting his re-release.
You can make examples of people when they do wrong.
Why not make examples of people when they do right?
Canton ping.
Wexford bump! :-)
At the very least I hope the local media will put this true release date in their "future" file and give him some good ink so he can find a decent job and stay straight. He's proved he can do the right thing...hope somebody gives him encouragement.
Given what just happened in Colorado, I have some hope for this guy. Here's hoping that he continues his "learning curve."
Good question.
I agree.
Sounds like someone with some honor, and someone who would vote Conservative....
If this guy is not deserving of early release, no one is. Let him sit there another 6 months and then send him on his way home.
Quick! Get me my guitar, I just got a great idea for a country music song....
Amen! Cut him at least a six month break, or maybe commute the sentence to time served.
I don't know the circumstances of his case, but this sure shows a level of awareness that indicates this guy might be on the right track to becoming a good citizen again.
I would suggest he be placed in a work release program and see how it goes. I would like to know a little more about the rape aquital first though. If he got off through a fluke there, I'd be hard pressed to cut him any slack.
"The Stark County jail let Ricky Lee Claycomb go on Tuesday after he was acquitted of a rape charge."
What's he doing in jail anywhere if he was aquitted of the rape charges brought against him?
What am I missing in this story? (I read the whole thing at the link.)
"I told a detective what happened, that he was coming back to Colorado on his own,'' she said. "He just said, `Bless Ricky's little heart.' ''
After two days on a cross-country bus, a man who was released by mistake from the Stark County Jail finally found someone who would put him back behind bars.
In fact, Ricky Lee Claycomb was given a police escort for the last few miles to the Colorado prison where he still has two years to serve on a robbery charge.
``He was nice enough to call ahead,'' said Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections. ``He told us he was driving in with a relative and that he had alerted the media.
``I think he was afraid we would shoot him or something, but it wasn't his fault Ohio let him go.''
Claycomb, 37, was extradited to Stark County from the Fremont Correctional Facility in Colorado last October. He was charged with the 1994 rape of a Canton woman because records in a national database indicated his semen matched a sample collected from the woman.
But on Tuesday, Claycomb was acquitted by a Stark County common pleas jury after evidence was presented that he had consensual sex with the woman a day before she was assaulted.
But instead of returning Claycomb to Colorado to serve the remainder of his sentence on the robbery conviction, Stark jail authorities showed him the door.
Claycomb called his mom in Colorado for help.
``He told them at the jail that he was supposed to be taken back to Colorado,'' said Jill Claycomb. ``He said they told him he was done in Canton and it was his problem to get back.''
The Stark County Sheriff's Department did not return calls for comment. A news release issued Friday stated Claycomb's mistaken release is under investigation.
Jill Claycomb sent her son a bus ticket home and called Colorado prison officials.
A short while later, her phone rang. It was Stark County looking for their lost charge.
``I told a detective what happened, that he was coming back to Colorado on his own,'' she said. ``He just said, `Bless Ricky's little heart.' ''
After the two-day bus trip to Colorado, Claycomb stayed home long enough to have his mother's oatmeal and peaches for breakfast and a pizza for lunch. Then he rode back to prison with his brother, Troy, who took along his wife and 3-year-old son.
Authorities had a few anxious hours when the Claycombs' three-hour trip stretched to five because Troy took a wrong turn through the mountains, Jill Claycomb said.
``It was a nightmare to get Ricky back to jail... I told my husband it was just like a movie.''
Reach Kymberli Hagelberg at 330-996-3038 or khagelberg@thebeaconjournal.com
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