Oops: Inmate
facing isle trial
sent away

Michael Ortiz was
transferred by mistake
to a prison in Oklahoma
at taxpayers' expense

By Linda Hosek
Star-Bulletin

The state accidentally gave an inmate about to start trial on the Big Island a trip to Oklahoma at taxpayer expense.

Michael Ortiz, one of 308 inmates transferred last week to Tennessee and Oklahoma prisons, slipped through the paperwork cracks, Public Safety Director Keith Kaneshiro said yesterday.

He said Ortiz, who was to begin a retrial this week for first-degree burglary, will return Thursday.

Kaneshiro also said two adult correction officers will take another prisoner to Oklahoma when they pick up Ortiz.

But he also said the impromptu round-trip with an overnight stay will cost the state $6,000.

"It's something that should have been avoided," he said, adding that an employee failed to screen Ortiz's file.

Kaneshiro said his department in January gave the prosecutor's office a list of inmates scheduled for transfer.

He also said the state Supreme Court reversed Ortiz's conviction after the list was sent.

Warden Eric Penarosa said he talked to Ortiz as he left for Oklahoma and that Ortiz said nothing about an upcoming trial.

"Everyone seemed happy to go," he said. "They were living three to a cell."

He said the current population of about 1,242 now means two to a cell.

Kaneshiro said the department discovered the mistake Friday, when a secretary was arranging to fly Ortiz to the Big Island for trial.

"She went looking for him and couldn't find him," he said.

The court is expected to set a new trial date this week.