This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that an error on its part led to the premature release from jail of Jeremy Johnson, the St. George businessman serving a federal prison sentence.
Johnson was freed late Monday afternoon from the jail, where he had been serving a 30-day sentence for contempt of court for refusing to testify in the trial of former Utah Attorney General John Swallow.
He should have been released to federal authorities for transport back to the California prison camp where he's been serving an 11-year sentence on his conviction of providing false information to a bank, the sheriff's office said in a news release dubbed a "clarification."
Johnson spent Monday night at a Salt Lake City hotel and then turned himself back in at the federal courthouse Tuesday morning. Before doing so, he said he had told jailers there was a federal hold on him, but they found none and ordered him to leave.
Johnson walked away from the jail and later went to the federal courthouse, which was closed. He said he then called the California prison and left a message saying he would stay at a hotel and turn himself in at the courthouse the next day.
Johnson said he ate a hamburger and ice cream and watched movies while at the hotel.
His short-term freedom, according to a news release, was the result of an error.
The Salt Lake County district attorney's office, which prosecuted Swallow, had provided the jail with information saying Johnson was to be released to federal authorities on completion of the contempt-of-court sentence.
"Language in this document was not entered into the jail management system by jail staff," the sheriff's office said, "and the prisoner was released 'time served' after fulfilling the terms of his commitment and without notification to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's local field office."
The jail accepted full responsibility and apologized to the district attorney's office and the FBI.
One of Johnson's attorneys, Karra Porter, said "regardless of how it happened," it confirms that her client is not a flight risk. "It also confirms what Jeremy said, which is that when he asked whether there was a federal hold, he was told that there was not."