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Monroe County Jail Supt. temporarily relieved of duties following inadvertent inmate release

Monroe County Sheriffs Department

The Superintendent of the Monroe County Jail has been temporarily relieved of his duties.

That word came Saturday from Sheriff Todd Baxter, who says that Supt. Ronald Harling was relieved of those responsibilities pending an internal investigation into the inadvertent release of an inmate who was appearing in Rochester City Court last Thursday.

Authorities had said that 30 year old Elvin Medina-Bauza, who was in the custody of Monroe County Sheriff’s Jail Transport deputies, walked out of city court after Judge Teresa Johnson dismissed the case after it was determined that criminal mischief charges were never filed.

Prior to Medina-Bauza’s appearance in Johnson’s courtroom, he was arraigned in a different court before Judge Stephen Miller on charges of burglary, criminal mischief and menacing, and ordered held on $20,000 bail.

Officials said that within seconds of Medina-Bauza’s exit from the courtroom, jail deputies realized he should not have been released from the building due to a court order from the appearance before Judge Miller.  The jail deputy immediately notified court deputies to stop Medina-Bauza, but he had left the building.

Law enforcement agencies were notified, and Rochester Police soon located Median-Bauza and he was apprehended and ordered held in jail. At that time, Sheriff Baxter said the error should not have occurred, and he said it would be reviewed by the Sheriff’s Internal Affairs Department as well as the NYS Commission of Corrections.

On Saturday, Baxter said that Undersheriff Korey Brown assumed the duties of Jail Superintendent until further notice. Baxter says there is no further information right now since it is a personnel matter.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.