A 19-year-old who just graduated from high school and reported to a local jail to serve an agreed-upon sentence was hit with a warrant after jail officials sent him home. Jaiquon Johnson went to the DeKalb County Jail in Georgia last Tuesday, complying with a court order for him to turn himself in after graduation, only things did not go according to plan.
Johnson was supposed to go there to be taken to a boot camp in Forsyth County as part of a first-offender sentence he received for a robbery in 2017. According to local WSB-TV, Johnson waited until Wednesday morning before he was told he could go home and come back the following week. Apparently there was a mix-up and they didn’t have transportation available for him at the time he came him.
Johnson notified his mother, who picked him up. She then spoke to his probation officer, who backed up what had just happened.
“She called me back and she told me, ‘Well, come bring him back here on Tuesday, the 12th,'” Nicole Johnson said.
Despite this, the probation officer filed for an arrest warrant with the court the next day, claiming that Johnson violated probation with “willful disregard of a Court Order.”
“He’s not a fugitive,” Johnson’s mother said. “He didn’t escape. He turned himself in. DeKalb County let him out.”
The Sheriff’s Office defended Johnson’s release, saying they notified the state. The judges involved in the case have not commented. The state’s Department of Community Supervision issued a statement that both acknowledged the warrant and the fact that Johnson was told to leave the jail:
Jaiqon Johnson is an individual under adult felony probation supervision by our department. Johnson was released from jail on or about Wednesday, June 6, 2018. He is currently wanted on charges of Willful Disregard of a Court Order and Probation Violation out of DeKalb County.
At this time, we encourage Johnson to report immediately to the DeKalb County jail and turn himself in to authorities where he can begin to carry out the confinement portion of his sentence.
We are optimistic Johnson will comply and this situation will be resolved in the very near future.
Johnson reportedly plans to turn himself in on Tuesday, the date he was told to come back when he was released. Meanwhile, his mother is livid.
“Nobody wants to be held accountable, but somebody needs to be held accountable for this.”
[Image via DeKalb County Jail]
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