CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Clayton County Sheriff is taking action against four officers after a mix-up led to a lockdown inside the jail after they couldn’t find a convicted murderer for hours.
“There was a mix-up of who was going to take the inmate down, and ultimately, he was left inside the holding cell,” Clayton County Sheriff Levon Allen said.
Allen told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that for about 12 hours last month, a convicted killer was missing inside the Clayton County Jail.
“There was a jail lockdown,” Allen said.
It was eventually discovered he had mistakenly been left overnight in a courtroom holding cell where no one is supposed to spend the night after an appearance on a misdemeanor case, which was basically dismissed in state court.
“Various courts go down at different times, but ultimately, the last person will leave the courts around 6 p.m.?” Winne asked Allen.
“Correct,” Allen said.
“He was discovered in the holding cell?” Winne asked Allen.
“Around 7 a.m. the next day, so it’s roughly around 12, 13 hours,” Allen said.
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Now the sheriff said he’s taking action, proposing demotions for two correctional sergeants in the jail and suspensions for two deputies assigned to the court division.
He said all four are entitled to a hearing before any discipline is finalized.
The sheriff said the courtroom holding cells have sinks, toilets, and benches, but no beds and no supervision unless the court is in session, is about to start, or has just ended.
“There is no one actually monitoring that particular cell if there was a distress call,” Allen said.
A sheriff’s office official said Julian Brooks Deloach was convicted of murder in 1984. In 2010, he was released on parole, which was eventually revoked.
While he was free, he caught the misdemeanor family violence case that a judge nolle prossed -- similar to a dismissal -- in Clayton County this month while he was on loan from state prison.
The sheriff said perhaps the biggest problem is that overnight, a convicted murderer was unaccounted for.
He said a jail head count revealed Deloach wasn’t where he was supposed to be, though it turned out he was never in danger of escape because in Clayton County, the courthouse is attached to the jail.
The court holding cells are still within the secured part of the justice complex.
But the episode caused the entire jail to be locked down for hours while a search inside the jail took place.
“They searched every cell, every area of the jail, searching for him. Ultimately, by the time we reviewed cameras and backtracked and took us back into the courtroom where he was at, ultimately, of course, hours had passed,” Allen said.
Allen told Winne that there are more than 500 employees at the sheriff’s office, about 2,000 inmates at the jail, and he’s been in the process of weeding out bad employees or saving the officers who can be retrained.
He estimates he’s terminated more than 100 people, and more than a dozen have been arrested. He said it’s about learning from mistakes and getting better.
Right after this story aired on Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m., Allen called Winne and indicated that three of the officers had waived their hearings and accepted their discipline
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