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Error sets another jail inmate freeBy TAMARA LUSH, Times Staff Writer© St. Petersburg Times published December 15, 2001 TAMPA -- For the third time in 15 months, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office mistakenly released an inmate from a county jail. At 6:30 a.m. Friday, deputies at the Orient Road Jail released Thai Pham. Trouble is, it was the wrong Thai Pham, sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder said. The 30-year-old Pham who was supposed to be released was charged with aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of false imprisonment, according to jail records. The 37-year-old Pham who was released had been charged with aggravated battery and resisting an officer without violence. Records show that he was deemed unfit to stand trial by a judge, and was ordered to a state mental hospital. The latter Pham, whose last known address was in Fort Lauderdale, is on the lam. Reder blamed human error for the mistakes. "The system in place works if it's followed," he said. "And it's not being followed." Reder said both men were housed in "pods," or large communal jail cells holding dozens of men. "It's not like a mass murderer being released out of a single cell," Reder said. "But you don't want this to happen at any time." An internal investigation will be conducted, Reder said. On Aug. 29, a Tampa man sentenced to two years in state prison on drug charges was released from the Falkenberg Road Jail. Deputies blamed the mistake on a clerical error, and the inmate was re-arrested two months later. An internal review is pending. In October 2000, a man headed to state prison on burglary, grand theft and cocaine possession charges was mistakenly released and found a short time later. Officials said an administrative mistake by a detention officer was to blame. The deputy was suspended for five days as punishment. The Sheriff's Office oversees three jails and about 60,000 prisoners a year. Each day, the jails' bookings and releases each number about 170.
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