A North Dakota man was arrested after authorities say he impersonated an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and walked an inmate out of a county jail.
The local sheriff said the episode on Tuesday resulted from complacency and human error and won't happen again.
Shane Al Randall, of Williston, is charged with impersonating officials, a misdemeanor. Court papers say jail staff of the Williams County Correctional Center in Williston had told the inmate that ICE was coming to pick him up. The inmate then called Randall “to have him come pick him up,” authorities said.
Randall arrived and told jail staff he was from ICE when he is not employed by the agency, and the staff released the inmate to him, court documents say.
Jail staff learned within 15 to 20 minutes that Randall was not an ICE agent when the real officer arrived, Williams County Sheriff Verlan Kvande said. Officers subsequently found and arrested Randall and the inmate without incident, his office said in a statement.
The sheriff is not taking disciplinary action against the jail staff, saying he's met with them and “I truly don't think there's anything else I can do on the disciplinary front that is going to make them feel any worse about this than they do on their own fruition. They're pretty dejected by this failure, and I certainly don't see something like this happening again.”
The inmate was found at his home, the sheriff said. He was arrested last month for driving under suspension and held on a detainer for ICE, and has been taken to the Ward County Detention Center in Minot, the sheriff's office said.
Court records indicate Randall is representing himself. He has bonded out of jail, the sheriff said. Randall has an initial appearance scheduled for March. He did not immediately respond to a message sent to a Facebook account believed to be his. A phone number for him could not immediately be found.
The misdemeanor offense is punishable by up to 360 days in jail and/or a $3,000 fine.
The sheriff's office will evaluate for potential charges against the inmate in connection with his release. His country of origin is unclear.
