Inmate mistakenly released without ankle monitor assaults a woman hours later, cops say
A man is accused of assaulting a someone less than a day after he was mistakenly released from a Louisiana jail without the court-approved ankle monitor, authorities say.
Lewis Stokes, 37, was released from the Orleans Justice Center in New Orleans just before midnight Nov. 15, according to a Nov. 16 release from the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office.
He posted bond earlier that night, and he was set to be released on the conditions that he wear an ankle monitor and remain under 24-hour house arrest, deputies said.
He was arrested Oct. 30 on charges of domestic abuse battery, child endangerment and simple assault, according to deputies.
However, he was released by accident without the ankle monitor.
About two hours after he was released, Stokes is accused of attacking a someone at a home in Jefferson Parish, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said in a news conference Nov. 17.
A Jefferson Parish spokesperson said the man battered a woman in the nearby parish, according to The Times-Picayune.
He now faces two counts of domestic battery in Jefferson Parish, Hutson said.
The person Stokes is accused of assaulting after his Nov. 15 release was not the woman he is accused of assaulting when he was originally arrested, Huston said.
According to preliminary investigation, the woman Stokes assaulted after his release is thought to be the same person who bonded him out, Hutson said.
Now, law enforcement agencies are searching for Stokes.
“The staff member involved in the incident has been formally disciplined for their negligence as it relates to this matter,” Orleans deputies said in the release.
Officials met to discuss the error and plan corrective action. They said they will provide additional training and update internal paperwork on ankle monitoring.
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