The Texas parolee now suspected in a deadly Craigslist robbery scheme was mistakenly released from custody in Akron last summer not once, but twice, say Texas officials and the director of an organization with oversight of interstate rules regarding adult criminal supervision.
They argue that 52-year-old Richard Beasley should never have been released from the Summit County jail, where he was being held on drug charges this summer.
Ohio is now investigating what went wrong, an inquiry that state officials called unprecedented.
Authorities say they are planning to charge Beasley with killing three men and wounding a third between August and November.
Beasley left jail on bond July 13, was rearrested July 14 after a traffic stop, then let go again while Texas had warrants asking he be kept in custody, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Associated Press.
“He shouldn’t have been released either time,” said Harry Hageman, executive director of the Interstate Commission for Adult Offender Supervision, which oversees rules that have the force of federal law.
“Because there was a warrant from Texas, there’s no bond, regardless of the arrest or defense,” he said.
The regulation for bail that governs inmates wanted by another state says: “An offender against whom retaking procedures have been instituted by a sending or receiving state shall not be admitted to bail or other release conditions in any state.”
Summit County officials said last week that when Beasley was in custody, they checked with Texas officials. Ohio law dictates that inmates can only be held for 10 days on an out-of-state detainer. Since Texas did not want to come get Beasley, he was released.
Now, Ohio has begun an investigation into Beasley’s release, the first such review that the head of Ohio’s interstate parole council can recall.
“It seems to be a case that warrants the attention of the Ohio council,” Sarah Andrews, chairman of the Ohio Council for Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision, told the AP.
Less than a month after Beasley was released from Summit County Jail for the second time, on July 15, a previously homeless Akron man was shot in the head in southeastern Ohio.
Authorities discovered the body of Ralph Geiger more than three months later, on Nov. 25, as they investigated the deaths of two men and the wounding of a third who answered a phony Craigslist ad for work on a cattle farm.
His brother, Mark Geiger, has said police told him they suspect the death was related to the Craigslist scheme.
“Ralph may have been the first victim, but he wasn’t the only victim,” said Geiger, 59, a telecommunications executive in Atlanta.
Beasley returned to Ohio in 2004, still on parole after serving several years for a Texas burglary conviction, records show.
After he was arrested Feb. 8 in Akron on drug charges, Texas issued a warrant for his arrest alleging a parole violation. That alone should have been enough to keep Beasley behind bars until being sent to Texas, no matter his standing in Ohio, according to Hageman.
The warrant was confirmed on June 24 when Beasley was arrested on a new drug charge, alleging he illegally sold prescription painkillers. Beasley signed a form that day agreeing to be extradited.
But the same day, Ohio gave Texas a deadline of July 10 to make a decision about Beasley, according to jail records obtained by the AP. Summit County sheriff’s spokesman Bill Holland says that deadline is a jail policy.
Hageman argues Summit County violated the interstate compact, which all states agree to follow. After Beasley’s attorney asked that he be released, he was freed on $10,000 bond.
Judge James Murphy approved his release July 12 and Beasley got out the next day. Murphy’s signed order said, “Texas authorities are only interested in extradition if there is a conviction in Ohio.”
Hageman contends that Murphy’s order violated the interstate commission rules. He noted that Murphy, who is retired and was sitting in for another judge, may not have been up on the compact rules.
Murphy said Thursday the hearing was a routine matter and he had no recollection of the case.
Texas reissued its warrant July 13 after learning of Beasley’s release.
“We were willing, able, ready, and we made that known in the proper way” by issuing three separate warrants and detainers, said Kathie Winckler, commissioner and chair of the Texas State Council for Interstate Adult Offender Supervision.
On July 14, police in Springfield Township stopped Beasley for a traffic violation around 11 p.m., then took him into custody when they learned of the Texas warrant. The police report does not specify the type of traffic violation. It says officers recovered several prescription painkillers from Beasley.
Beasley was taken to the Summit County Jail that night, the report says. A timeline created by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice indicates someone from Summit County confirmed the existence of the Texas warrant, but that Beasley was allowed to leave jail anyway early on July 15.
Summit County jail officials say Springfield couldn’t find a copy of the warrant when it looked a second time. The Springfield police chief says his officers took Beasley to jail on the warrant but doesn’t know what happened afterward.
Summit jail officials say they did nothing wrong, saying they had no choice once Murphy issued his order.
