SAN ANTONIO — A clerical error—that's how Bexar County officials explain a man being allowed to walk right out of the jail when he belonged behind bars.
BCSO says there's a paper trail explaining how Gilbert Lopez was accidentally released from jail.
On Nov. 5 Lopez was arrested by SAPD for drug possession. Two days later, he was released on bond. And, on Nov. 13, District Court issued a warrant for his arrest to revoke probation on a previous case.
SAPD arrested him again on Nov. 22, and he remained in jail until Tuesday, which is when BCSO received court documents saying Lopez’s Nov. 5 arrest was dismissed.
He was released Wednesday at 8 p.m.
"Same person, same SID number, same charge," Assistant Chief Deputy Ronald Bennet. "At that point, a step was missed in processing that paperwork. Essentially what happened was it was a clerical error, and we are at fault for that."
On Thursday morning BCSO was notified he should not have been released. Bennett reassures the public was not in any danger during the five hours Lopez was released, explaining Lopez was contacted and actually turned himself in to authorities.
While the mistake is clear, the steps that allowed it are under review.
"We have an internal investigation that has kicked off. We have reports from everybody from the clerk all the way through to the civilian office that takes care of our processing and releasing to the supervisors who manage that area," Bennett said. "I don't have an answer for what exactly happened, but I know that we are addressing it for sure."
This mistake comes on the heels of another BCSO deputy being arrested for DWI this week.
When asked about the public having concerns over leadership, Bennett said the sheriff’s office can understand why people might worry.
“Absolutely, we understand that. Sheriff (Javier) Salazar understands that," he said. "We are doing as much as we humanly possibly can with the resources allocated to the Sheriff to make these changes to make sure that we don't make these mistakes."