‘We made a mistake:’ Oregon cops release wrong inmate, then charge her for escape
It was either an honest case of mistaken identity, or a pernicious plot to get out of jail — and prosecutors accuse the inmate of the latter.
Emily Ashton Fasel, 23, was mistakenly released June 10 from an overcrowded jail in Medford, Oregon. It took authorities two days to track her down and rearrest her, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
Announcing Fasel’s rearrest, Sheriff Nathan Sickler promised to figure out whether Fasel intentionally misled jailers to get released. Still, Sickler admitted that jail officials and the sheriff’s office were at least partly responsible for accidentally releasing the wrong woman.
“We made a mistake and let the wrong person out of jail,” Sickler said in a statement announcing Fasel’s arrest. “We will work to ensure this doesn't happen again.”
But Fasal may carry some of the blame: Prosecutors have charged Fasel with second-degree escape and identity theft in the incident, according to court records obtained by the Mail Tribune in Medford. She’s accused of posing as the inmate who was actually meant to be let out when that inmate’s name was called.
Holding Fasel at the jail in the first place had been a priority because she wasn’t showing up for court appearances, the sheriff’s office said — making her disappearance from the jail all the more vexing.
The sheriff’s office had listed Fasel on June 1 as one of the “Top 5 FTA Offenders” in the county — a dubious distinction authorities give to suspects who time and again fail to appear in court. The sheriff’s office asked the public to help track her down.
Fasel then had seven active warrants, the sheriff’s office said.
On June 6, Medford authorities had arrested Fasel for missing the court dates, KDRV reports. The charges Fasel faces in court include heroin and meth possession. The plan was to keep Fasel locked up until all those cases could be sorted out, the sheriff’s office said.
Then came the accidental release.
The woman actually slated to be released June 10 due to jail overcrowding was a 19-year-old in custody after misdemeanor drug and theft accusations, the Mail Tribune reports.
Fasel was released with the 19-year-old's phone and clothes, deputies said. That earned Fasel a misdemeanor theft charge once she was arrested.
“I can’t think of another case where someone pretended to be someone else and got released from here,” Jackson County Jail Cmdr. Lt. Josh Aldrich told the Mail Tribune. “You had someone that was very much trying to deceive.”
Fasel was staying at a hotel in Grants Pass, northwest of Medford, when authorities found her. Now that Fasel is back in jail, she will stay there until all the charges she faces are adjudicated, the sheriff’s office said.
Sickler told KOBI that he isn’t trying to excuse the slip up, but noted just how many individuals filter in and out of the jail.
“35,000 people in the last 2.5 years,” Sickler told the TV station. “This happened once. We’re all humans, we make mistakes. I take responsibility, it’s my agency.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 5:44 PM with the headline "‘We made a mistake:’ Oregon cops release wrong inmate, then charge her for escape."