Convict let out of prison early

Tricia Trail says she’s terrified.

Her former boyfriend, who was convicted of beating their two children late last year, was mistakenly released from Geiger Corrections Center Sunday, one year early.

Trail found out when she was awakened early Sunday morning with a two-word phone call: “I’m out.”

Charles J. Johnson, 40, was just four months into his 16-month sentence for assault when he walked out of Geiger because of a paperwork mistake.

“We really blew it,” said Spokane County CEO Francine Boxer, who is also Geiger’s interim director.

Boxer didn’t find out about the release until Monday morning. Now authorities are trying to find Johnson so he serves the remainder of his sentence.

Boxer said Johnson was last spotted just blocks from the downtown Greyhound bus station.

Johnson is 6-foot-7 and weighs 250 pounds.

He was originally scheduled for release in June 2005, but that sentence was lengthened by a month after he was caught with marijuana in his system, said Geiger Programs Manager Georgette Thornton.

Smoking pot may have inadvertently been Johnson’s ticket to early release.

That caused his information to be moved into the July 11, 2004, slot in the corrections center’s single-year tickler file, said Boxer.

When corrections officers checked that file Sunday, they found Johnson’s sheet, but failed to notice that the date for release was 2005, not 2004, Boxer said.

“It was really one of those unfortunate mistakes,” she said.

Typically, prisoners don’t serve terms at Geiger longer than one year, she explained, so the paperwork system for release dates wasn’t designed to accommodate longer-term inmates.

Boxer said that system has been changed as of today. Now the tickler file includes multiple years, with each year color-coded to differentiate it from the others.

Johnson was put on probation for beating his and Trail’s sons in October. The youngest was hit with a belt so hard that it left welts on his forehead and back, said Trail, who added that Johnson kicked the older child.

They were 7 and 9 at the time.

He was later jailed for violating that probation when he kicked in another girlfriend’s door.

“The whole thing is, we were going to be moved by the time he got out. We were expecting him to be out in 2005. We had that safety net, and now it’s gone,” Trail said.

She added that Johnson has also been violent with her in the past.

Now Trail is looking over her shoulder. She’s moved some of her kids to an undisclosed location, although her oldest refuses to leave her. A friend is staying with the two of them to provide some security.

Her kids have been told to call 911 and run if they see their father.

Trail said she doesn’t have the money she needs to move right now.

Geiger Corrections Center has failed her twice, said Trail. First they let Johnson go, and then they failed to publicize his early release.

Geiger never issued any kind of press release.

“If you’re really trying to find somebody, you want that out for the public’s knowledge,” Trail said.