Jailer Who Mistakenly Released Inmate Responsible For Earlier Incident

Last Friday, Shaun Bordeaux was sentenced to eight to 10 months on felony drug charges.Monday, misdemeanor charges against him were dropped.

According to Cumberland authorities, Sgt. Scott Burgess saw paperwork that charges were dropped, so he released him from jail. However, Bordeaux was headed to prison on the felony charges. It was not until Thursday night, as jailers were getting ready to transport several inmates to a state prison that they noticed Bordeaux had been released.

Sheriff Moose Butler said he is not happy about the incident.

"I stand before you and say this is another human error and there's no excuse for it," he said.

Butler said after another inmate, Mike McNeil, was mistakenly let go last month, the jail implemented a new checklist policy to prevent similar paperwork errors. He does not think Burgess followed the checklist Monday. Burgess, who had just returned to work since the prior incident, is now suspended again with pay.

Since the jail opened seven months ago, there have been two inmate suicides, accusations of drug smuggling among jailers and the two mistaken releases. Butler said the suicides could not have been prevented and insists jailers are to blame for the other incidents not the new facility.

"We just let a man out that shouldn't have been let out," he said.

Butler said Chief Jailer Maj. Dan Ford will be held responsible for the actions of his staff, but he would not say exactly how.Butler said he does not think there are any training issues. Burgess has worked for the Sheriff's Office for nine years.

WRAL talked with Bordeaux's sister Friday. She said she had no idea he was released until deputies showed up looking for him.