The Guilford County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t provided a whole lot of details on exactly what went wrong when two inmates charged with violent crimes were improperly released from custody last week; however, just before midnight on Monday, Sept. 23, the Office sent out a press release that provided information about each release.

It starts by providing some information that was already known: On Monday, Sept. 16, at about 4:30 p.m., Carlos Geovany “Yobani” Diaz-Gomez, 32, was “improperly released” (read: escaped) from the Guilford County Detention Center in Greensboro,

Diaz-Gomez used the identity card of another inmate who was scheduled to be released that same day.

Detention officers at the jail were unaware of the improper release until Wednesday, Sept. 18, at which time an arrest warrant charging Diaz-Gomez with escape was obtained immediately by Sheriff’s Office deputies. The office didn’t inform the public at that time and denied an escape to WXII when a reporter asked directly and repeatedly whether there had been an escape.

 The Sheriff’s Office offers the following explanation.

“Releasing information to the public at that juncture,” it reads, “would have compromised the investigation and apprehension of Diaz-Gomez by alerting him that his scheme had been discovered and that Deputies were searching for him in the Winston-Salem area.”

Accordingly, any news release or news conference was temporarily postponed.

The statement from the Office does not address the fact that the Office told WXII News that no escape had taken place. There are other ways to handle that situation rather than being dishonest about it.

On Friday, Sept. 20, Sheriff’s Department deputies re-arrested Diaz-Gomez in Winston-Salem, and he’s now back in custody at the jail in Downtown Greensboro under several secured bonds that total $57,600.00.

The late-night explanation from the Sheriff’s Office adds, “Sheriff [Danny] Rogers acknowledges that the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office takes full responsibility for the improper release of Diaz-Gomez which enabled him to escape and will take the appropriate action to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Also, “To ensure transparency, Sheriff Rogers has initiated an independent investigation into the incident involving Diaz-Gomez from an outside law enforcement agency. There is no further information to share at this time.”

The press release from the Sheriff’s Office goes on to address the improper release of Jessie Steed, 38, who on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 4:14 p.m., was released from the High Point Detention Center after being held for the following two charges: (1) Misdemeanor Domestic Criminal Trespass, and (2) Felony Stalking.

“In court on Thursday, those two charges were dismissed by the District Attorney’s Office thus removing the legal bases [sic] upon which the Sheriff’s Office was holding Mr. Steed and leading to his release from Jail later that day. The Guilford County Clerk of Court’s Office transmitted the dismissal notices to the Sheriff’s Office but failed to send Jail Officials a Commitment Order which authorized the Sheriff’s Office to continue to hold

Steed on an additional criminal charge for which he had been sentenced under NC General Statute 14-32.4 for Felony Assault Inflicting Serious Bodily Injury.”

The statement from the Sheriff’s Office adds, “If Jail Officials at the Sheriff’s Office had received the Commitment Order from the Clerk’s Office at the time they received the notices of dismissal, Steed would not have been released from custody at the Jail.”

The Office also states that after the mistake by the Clerk’s Office was discovered, Superior Court Judge Stephanie Reese issued a new Order for Arrest – and Steed was apprehended by the High Point Police Department that same day at 6:30 p.m.

Currently, he’s being held in the county’s High Point Jail and is awaiting transportation to the North Carolina State prison system to serve a sentence of 11 to 23 months of active confinement time. There is no further information to share.”

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