County jail to alter way it releases prisoners
Missed paperwork allowed an out-of-state inmate and registered sex offender to roam the streets of Pittsburgh for days earlier this month before he made his way to Indiana, where police nabbed him.
Allegheny County Jail’s warden, Orlando Harper, refused to assign blame for the inadvertent release Aug. 3 of Djamal Eleam, 32. Mr. Harper said his department is working with the county sheriff to shore up the paperwork process.
Sheriff’s deputies brought Eleam to Pittsburgh in early July from a Connecticut prison, so he could appear for a preliminary hearing on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender as a result
of a previous conviction in Pennsylvania.
Eleam was to be lodged at the jail without bail and then returned to the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville, Conn., where he was serving four years for a burglary conviction.
During the Aug. 3 hearing, a judge withdrew the failure-to-register charge against Eleam, court records show.
“The Allegheny County Jail released inmate Eleam following his court hearing on the aforementioned case where the charges were dropped. Eleam was released in error,” Allegheny County sheriff’s deputies wrote in a criminal complaint charging him with escape and flight to avoid apprehension.
Mr. Harper said in a statement, “Quite simply, paperwork regarding Mr. Eleam’s detainer was missed, and he was mistakenly released.”
The warden would not “point to fault,” but rather, “his focus is on ensuring this never happens again,” a county spokeswoman said.
“We have since met with the sheriff and put a more detailed process in place that includes a receipt and inventory of the paperwork, which has been provided from one entity to the other to ensure that errors like this do not occur again,” the warden said.
After being released, Eleam, who uses multiple aliases, encountered University of Pittsburgh police five days later after an Oakland resident reported suspicious activity in a parking lot near Louisa and Atwood streets. A man was looking into cars and windows and hanging out around apartment doors, the caller said.
Police caught up with Eleam about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 8 four blocks away on Forbes Avenue and told him that he would be charged via summons for loitering and prowling at night.
“Eleam was then released on scene,” university police wrote in their criminal complaint.
Kevin Kraus, chief deputy of the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, said Pitt police would have had no way of knowing the county had released Eleam in error.
“If they ran a check on him, there would have been no wants or warrants,” he said.
On Aug. 17, when the sheriff’s office was scheduling Eleam’s transportation back to Connecticut, “it was discovered Eleam was no longer a resident of the Allegheny County Jail,” police wrote in the criminal complaint.
A detective was able to reach Eleam by phone that evening, but he ended the call and refused to talk more with police. Police did not say how they were able to contact him or where he was at that point.
The sheriff’s office tracked Eleam from Pittsburgh to the Indianapolis area, where he had boarded a bus to St. Louis, Chief Deputy Kraus said.
On Aug. 18, Indiana State Police pulled over the bus on Interstate 70, west of Indianapolis, and arrested Eleam. He was charged there after providing false information to troopers.
Eleam is now being held in the Putnam County Jail in Greencastle, Ind., and will be returned to Allegheny County before being sent back to Connecticut.
The New Haven Register reported on Oct. 10 of last year that Eleam burglarized students’ apartments in the Connecticut city, which is home to Yale University. Court records show he was sentenced Jan. 13.
Eleam is a registered sex offender in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas, authorities said.
Chief Deputy Kraus said his agency considered Eleam a violent criminal and it was a high priority to find him.
“I’m happy we were able to apprehend him so quickly,” he said, “and that’s attributed to the partnership among law enforcement organizations.”