Report: Communication breakdowns contributed to release of man who killed officer


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UTAH STATE PRISON — A series of procedural problems, muddled paperwork and miscommunication about new criminal charges contributed to the release of a prison inmate who weeks later shot and killed a Unified police officer and wounded another during a shootout, a Department of Corrections review has found.

Officials stopped short Friday of calling it a mistaken release, but the man was released from prison two weeks after a federal detainer ordering him to remain behind bars was issued. That detainer, however, wasn't scanned into the department's system for the board of pardons to see until nearly a month after it was ordered, according to findings of the review released Friday.

The review was initiated after Cory Lee Henderson, 31, ran from the scene of a car accident on Jan. 17 and gunned down police officer Doug Barney, one of the officers searching a Holladay neighborhood for him. The shooting occurred a month after Henderson walked away from the halfway house he had been released to following his latest stint in prison.

Henderson was killed in a subsequent shootout with police, but not before he shot and wounded a second officer, Unified police officer Jon Richey.

Rollin Cook, executive director of the Utah Department of Corrections, said Henderson's release from prison wasn't a mistake, but he admitted that interagency sharing of complete and correct information, along with timely processing of a federal detainer in light of new charges, might have kept Henderson in prison longer.

In the 10 years leading up to the shooting, Henderson had faced a number of drug-related state charges that were mostly dismissed in lieu of federal firearms charges. In 2005, Henderson was indicted in U.S. District Court for possession of a sawed-off .22-caliber rifle with its serial number removed. He was indicted again in March 2010 for possessing a firearm as a restricted person.

After eventually serving 14 months in prison on the combined charges, Henderson was paroled in April 2015. A warrant for his arrest was issued a month later when he again failed to report to parole officials or complete treatment.

Henderson was arrested yet again on Oct. 3 for parole violations and sent back to prison. But when an Adult Probation and Parole supervisor misidentified the agency that arrested him, it caused confusion that kept the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole from learning about a new criminal case that was pending against him when it held his parole hearing on Nov. 4, according to the review.

The supervisor also "did not clearly communicate the arrest date to Henderson's agent," the review found. Because of that incorrect information, Henderson's agent and the parole board were apparently unaware that Henderson — a person restricted from having a firearm — had a gun with him before he was taken into custody for the other parole violations.

New federal criminal drug and firearms charges were filed against Henderson on Nov. 24 while he was still in prison. A federal detainer was then issued for him on Nov. 25, ordering him to be kept in custody.

But the detainer, which would have triggered an alert to the parole board, wasn't entered into the department's system until almost a month later on Dec. 18 — 10 days after Henderson was released from the Utah State Prison to the Fortitude Treatment Center in Salt Lake City, the review found.

The same day the detainer order was scanned into the system — Dec. 18 — was the same day Henderson walked away from the treatment center and never returned. He killed Barney one month later on Jan. 17.

"If we would have had the right dates, times and arresting agency to be able to find that arrest information … then (the parole board) can make their decision about do they need to change — are they not going to place him out in (a halfway house) or are they going to keep him incarcerated," Cook said.

The Department of Corrections is now taking steps to repair the cracks in its system that led to Henderson's release and is considering disciplinary action against individuals involved in the procedural breakdown surrounding Henderson's release, Cook said. Those individuals have not been placed on leave and are cooperating with the review.

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"We are trying to take a measured approach, to make sure they understand the impact, but also remembering they have felt this burden a great deal over the last several weeks," Cook said. "They've been completely open and transparent the entire time."

Those corrective measures include requiring Adult Probation and Parole supervisors to maintain a detailed, immediate log about new arrest information in the department's database so that correct information can be quickly located later on, Cook said.

Additionally, detainers will now be immediately entered into the department's system, according to Cook. He did not have an estimate as to how long it has generally taken detainers to be scanned into the department's system.

"I don't know what the average time (to process detainers) was," Cook said of the work by corrections staff. "We don't believe this was the case in every situation where they didn't get things entered in a timely manner. What I can tell you is we have made changes to make sure that that process includes putting all of those documents and things into the system as soon as they possibly can when they receive them."

Regarding the delays processing the detainer and incomplete information surrounding Henderson's arrest, Cook cited "inattention to detail" and sometimes "overwhelming" amounts of work for Department of Corrections staff.

"In my opinion, it looks like a list of different errors that occurred just exactly at the same time, people not paying attention, but thankfully that's not occurring every single day. Our people do a fantastic job maintaining the records and moving this information through at a great pace, but in this case we failed and we've got to do better," Cook said.

Policies and procedures at Fortitude Treatment Center, where Henderson was sent after his release from prison, will also be reviewed, Cook said.

The findings of the Department of Corrections' review comes on the heels of a legislative audit of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole released this week, which found the board's practices to be antiquated and inconsistent.

The audit revealed that the five-member board still does all of its work on paper — including handwritten notes that auditors said are unclear — and does not have an electronic records system, making coordination with other agencies and measuring its performance difficult.

Auditors also found that rather than being evidence-based, board members make decisions in parole hearings using their professional judgment and experience, which can lead to bias.

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McKenzie Romero

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