Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg working to fix computer system glitch that caused hundreds of inmates to be released

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — About 118 persons accused of crimes which include indecent publicity, DWI and racing have been launched from the Harris County jail past weekend owing to a personal computer outage that prevented them from receiving a possible lead to hearing.

The Harris County Universal Services computer program, employed by all legislation enforcement organizations to file fees, was down from March 24 as a result of March 26, in accordance to the Harris County District Attorney’s Business office. Sources say it took place during a method update.

The laptop or computer technique crashed past Thursday night in a failure that stretched out into the weekend.

As a result, the sharing of info on arrested prison defendants was halted. Regrettably, criminal offense takes place at all hours of the day, so when arresting officers were being taking suspects to jail, the information needed to approve and/or reject fees was not achieving the justice process.

In a letter to regulation enforcement companies, the DA’s office claimed the program failure threatened general public protection, and stated that it brought anything within the processing center to a standstill. Hundreds of defendants sat for several hours, and when they couldn’t see a magistrate ahead of the essential time, a decide ordered that they be enable go. Suspects are normally supposed to see a magistrate in just 24 hrs for a misdemeanor and 48 hours for a felony, the letter stated.

On Wednesday, ABC13 obtained the list of these who ended up produced and their expenses. They are largely non-violent but at least a dozen have legal histories that involve violent offenses.

Adrian Alonzo Taylor was arrested previous Thursday for indecent publicity and released just before viewing a magistrate or provided any bond disorders. The alleged target is his neighbor.

“He unzipped his zipper and pulled it out. I was completely disgusted by it,” mentioned Ashlyn. “I’m mostly apprehensive about my little sisters’ protection. I have a few other sisters in this property.”

The DA’s office environment told organizations that officers wanted to refile fees. Some of those people unveiled would want to be rearrested. Courtroom information show Taylor was rearrested Wednesday afternoon.

Defense Lawyer Emily Detoto’s customer was unveiled right after he waited for at the very least 40 hours to see a justice of the peace. She thinks his constitutional rights were being violated. He was facing his second DWI demand.

“I consider a whole lot of lawyers will be in search of to have their situations dismissed due to the fact of this glitch,” she reported. “When we drop electric power in the property we have a generator as a backup. I locate it challenging to imagine in a county as massive as ours, in this day and age, we never have some backup method to reduce this from occurring.”

In reaction to the glitch, the DA’s business office despatched the following statement”

“The hottest Harris County Common Services’ pc-procedure failure has the entire interest of the district legal professional, law enforcement main and sheriff simply because it resulted in the temporary release of accused criminals,” claimed Dane Schiller, spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Business office. “The safety of the community, stability of our criminal justice procedure and effectiveness of our courts need that the county give Universal Companies the assets to take care of this and be certain it by no means comes about yet again.”

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