Saturday, March 15, 2008

Bailiff forgot about a woman locked in a courthouse holding cell - for four days

From sfgate.com:

A bailiff who forgot about a woman locked in a courthouse holding cell and left her there for four days without food, water or access to a bathroom has been suspended for 30 days but will keep his job, officials said Wednesday.

Washington County Cpl. Jarrod Hankins acted without "intentional misconduct" when he left Adriana Torres-Flores in the 9 1/2-by-10 1/2-foot cell, Sheriff Tim Helder said.

Hankins "became busy and simply forgot" about the woman last Thursday, leaving her in the cell with only a jacket until Monday morning.

"I realize some people may have expected Hankins to be terminated. However, my philosophy is if an employee makes a mistake while trying their best to perform their duties, I will try to salvage them," Helder said in a statement.

Helder said Hankins had "an otherwise exemplary record" since 2005. Hankins was placed on administrative leave without pay Monday.
(...)
Hankins locked Torres-Flores in the temporary cell and meant to have other deputies drive her back to the county jail. That never happened. No one heard Torres-Flores pounding on the cell's steel door or looked through its peephole Friday, as snow blanketed Arkansas and Storey did not hear criminal cases.

However, the sheriff's office said Hankins was on duty Friday.

Excuse me?

"Hankins "became busy and simply forgot" about the woman last Thursday, leaving her in the cell with only a jacket until Monday morning."
He simply forgot?

"No one heard Torres-Flores pounding on the cell's steel door or looked through its peephole Friday".
She's lucky to be alive - that jail sounds like it's run by an evil version of Forrect Gump.

So, "he left Adriana Torres-Flores in the 9 1/2-by-10 1/2-foot cell", for four days.
Not grounds for termination, he won't get fired - we all make mistakes after all. I wonder if people who produce grenades for the USArmy in a factory, if an employee pulled a pin from several grenades for fun - would he be fired by you, Sheriff Helder?
advanced web statistics

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I live in Arkansas. While the story is quite negative, there is one fact that was left out of the SFGATE story you quoted - the building was closed Friday because of a snowstorm and remained closed over the weekend. Not an excuse, but it is an important fact.