ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – When law enforcement officers in our community arrest suspects and take them to jail, we expect they’ll stay there until the courts decide otherwise. That’s a big part of how our criminal justice system works.

However, last month, employees at the Metropolitan Detention Center accidentally released suspects not once, not twice, but three separate times. It wasn’t necessarily easy getting those suspects back in custody.

KOB 4 got some answers from jail leaders Wednesday about these pretty serious mistakes.

Jail leaders are largely blaming it on human error. That’s especially concerning knowing the three suspects accidentally released are facing drug, aggravated battery, and armed robbery charges.

An MDC spokesperson says an employee accidentally released Anthony Jaramillo on July 3. He’s facing drug charges after Bernalillo County deputies reportedly found him passed out in a car with meth.

The spokesperson says the jail employee made a clerical error, and Jaramillo was released.

The spokesperson says this was the second time this employee accidentally released an inmate, and the employee took full responsibility for the mistake. The employee was disciplined, but not fired.

Fast-forward to July 17, another jail employee accidentally released Ashante Pierotti before he was transferred into pretrial services. He’s facing aggravated battery charges against a family member.

According to the spokesperson, the employee made a human error and took full responsibility. The employee was disciplined, but not fired.

Officials say Pierotti returned to be placed on pretrial services.

One week later, on July 24, another jail employee accidentally released Desiree Sanchez. She’s facing armed robbery and aggravated battery charges.

The spokesperson says this case is still under investigation. But we know Sanchez called 911 to turn herself in a few days after her accidental release.

So how did all this happen? That’s what jail leaders had to explain to the Bernalillo County Detention Facility Advisory Board Wednesday night. 

The new MDC warden – who’s only been on the job since June – revealed a policy requiring supervisors to sign off on all releases was eliminated back in 2020. That means there was no one to catch those human errors.

“There was a question regarding why there was a decision made in 2020 by the administrator in charge. I can’t intelligently speak on that. I can only tell you that the decision, once we have seen that, was to immediately fix that and eliminate that. Going back to a double set of eyes to check the paperwork for accuracy, to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” said Metropolitan Detention Center Warden, Steven Kai Smith.  

But it did happen again. A spokesperson confirmed that the two-eyes policy was reinstated on July 18, one day after the second accidental release. That means it was in place during the third accidental release.

A spokesperson told us there are other, more complicated issues involved in that release, and it’s still under investigation, so they can’t reveal much right now.