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John Daley reporting When a Salt Lake City SWAT team made a big drug bust a couple of weeks ago, the East Bench neighbors expressed relief.
"I'm just glad they took that element out of our neighborhood."
But now, the three men police arrested are back out on the streets, because authorities failed to file charges.
We discovered it was a bureaucratic mix-up that let wanted men slip through the cracks. We started looking into this today, after we received a tip that the three had been released from jail, after the DA failed to file the paperwork. We made some calls and discovered it's true.
It was a high-profile drug bust. The Salt Lake City SWAT and narcotics units arrested three men at their Eastside home on January 11th. Inside, they found ecstasy, marijuana, money, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. One of the men was a popular PE teacher at Beacon Heights Elementary School. Neighbors described the home as a frequent party spot.
"There were lots of cars. They'd stop in for 2 or 3 minutes, leave the car running and then leave."
"I saw people carrying packages wrapped in a t-shirt go into the house and then come out without the package."
Lt. Dave Cracroft, Salt Lake City Police Dept.: "They were definitely dealing. They had all sorts of paraphernalia for measuring and distributing narcotics."
The three - James Oberlin, Rohan Ramesh, and the PE teacher David Zipperer - were booked into the Salt Lake County jail on January 11th.
But then they were released on January 17th with a note made in the computer: "fail to file". In other words, they were released because authorities never filed charges.
Given the prominence of the case, it seemed like a surprise.
We called the County DAs office. Prosecutor and spokesman Bob Stott told us "We have no record of anyone asking us to process" it.
He suggested we call Salt Lake City police.
Police spokesperson Robin Snyder declined comment, other than to say "Call the DAs office again." When we did, we got to the bottom of "The Case of the Accidentally Released Suspects."
Prosecutor Bob Stott told us a further review discovered someone in the DAs office left the file on the desk of an attorney who was away last week for training. The case was not entered into the computer, and the three were released. He says, "It's a snafu on the part of the our office."
So where are the three men? No one is quite sure. They aren't in jail anymore, and they still haven't been formally charged. But again, the DAs office tells us those charges and warrants are going out today.
This is the second time in recent memory that this has happened. A man accused of robbing an elderly woman was also released prematurely, this month. Just a few days later, he committed another crime.
The problem? Same thing. The DA's office failed to file charges on time.
