‘Perfect storm’ existed for escapes
Months before 2 killers forged papers, FDLE had alerted top officials about schemes
Months before the first of two convicted killers was freed from prison by phony court paperwork, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement alerted top corrections and law-enforcement officials to the escape scheme, calling it a “perfect storm.”
Despite the stern warning — in anemail fromFlorida Department of Law Enforcement General Counsel Michael R. Ramage and later an FDLE bulletin — convicted Orlando-area killers Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, both 34, successfully pulled off the scheme and were released from life sentences, according to investigators.
Ramage notified his agency’s top staff, as well as Department of Corrections Secretary Michael Crews, on July 2 of the imminent danger of escapes, according to records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
“This is a ‘perfect storm’ for fraudulent pleadings,” Ramage wrote in the email. “The inmates trying this are under long sentences, including ‘life.’ They have nothing to lose in trying to finagle a release from custody.”
Months later, investigators say, forged court orders reducing Jenkins’ and Walker’s sentences were processed by the Orange County Clerk of Court, which sent them to the Department of Corrections, which accepted them and released the pair.
Ramage concluded his July email by urging the release of a statewide alert to put law-enforcement agencies on notice.
“The best success in curbing this abuse is through greater awareness on everyone’s part,” he wrote. “Please help get the word out.”
Thealert was sent to state attorneys across Florida and the Department of Corrections, but not county clerks of court, the FDLE confirmed.
On Thursday, FDOC spokeswoman Jessica Cary said it’s the role of the clerk to verify court orders — not corrections officials.
“It is not our responsibility to verify the orders, it’s the clerk’s office; they verify the orders,” Cary said. “It’s our duty to execute those orders.”
Prior to the killers’ escapes, Cary said, the FDOCverified court orders by checking with county clerks of court. Once an order is verified, she said, “we have no legal discretion in whether to follow those orders.”
The Department of Corrections recently implemented a newpractice, verifying orders that reduce inmates’ sentences with the judges who signed them, instead of the clerk. But that change came only after Walker and Jenkins escaped.
Orange County Clerk of Court spokeswoman Leesa Bainbridge said Thursday that, before the policy change, the FDOC typically called only to confirm that the order appeared in the inmate’s case file.
“They don’t call us to say, is this authentic? They’re not asking us to authenticate it,” Bainbridge said. “We would not be the ones to say, ‘Yes, this is authentic.’ ”
The alert bulletin specifically noted four instances, dating to 2009, in which inmates had attempted the scheme.
Months after Ramage’s warning, Jenkins, who had been serving life for killing a Pine Hills father of six, was released Sept. 27 from Franklin Correctional Institution after forged court papers duped the Orange County Clerk of Court and the state Department of Corrections.
On Oct. 7, Walker, serving life for killing an Orlando man, was released from the same prison.
On the same day in July that Ramage sent his warning to FDLE and FDOC, he also contacted Bernie McCabe, the state attorney in Pinellas County.
“My guys have asked me to help ‘alert’ clerks, state attorneys, etc. of this ‘scam,’ ” Ramage wrote to McCabe. “The problem with the clerks is that they don’t ‘evaluate’ they just ‘accept, stamp and file.’ ”
In a news conference after Walker and Jenkins were recaptured, FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey said his agency “talked with the 20 state attorneys in the summer about the situation.”
“At that time, it had not rose to the level that obviously this case has risen to,” Bailey said.
In an emailed response to Ramage’s warning email and the alert bulletin, the Department of Corrections’ Admission and Release Bureau Chief Robert Adams wrote that any delay in notifying his bureau of fraudulent activity “could result in the improper release of [an] inmate.”
“Without some sound, factual basis to justify delayed processing,” Adams wrote, “an order that is regular on its face and is a part of the official judicial record maintained by the clerk must be executed by DOC.”
According to FDLE, Ramage’s July warning stemmedfroma similar case involving another Franklin Correctional inmate that surfaced in February.
That inmate, Jeffery Forbes, was foiled whenformer Orange County sheriff ’s homicide Detective Dave Clarke discovered that his release date had been changed and alerted the Orange- Osceola State Attorney’s Office.
In the months that fol- lowed, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted a full investigation, which culminated Oct. 8 when prosecutors filed charges against Forbes.
After a briefing April 1, a Florida Department of Corrections senior inspector said the FDOC “planned to conduct an audit of other potential cases,” according to the State Attorney’s Office. Corrections officials have not said whether the audit was completed or what it found.
Asked recently whether he was surprised that the Forbes investigation didn’t lead to changes before Jenkins’ and Walker’s releases, State Attorney Jeff Ashton replied: “I am.”
“One of the reasons for us informing the appropriate agencies as quickly as we did was to alert them to this sort of gap, if you will, in the process,” Ashton told the Sentinel.