Inmate inadvertently released early

Saturday, August 29, 2009

GREENCASTLE -- A Putnam County Jail inmate sentenced in May to serve time at the Indiana Department of Correction recently received nine days of freedom due to a typographical error.

Charles Collins, 41, was sentenced in Putnam County Circuit Court on May 18 to three years at the DOC with two years executed and one year suspended with credit for 99 days already served on a Class D felony criminal confinement charge. In addition, Collins was given a suspended one-year DOC sentence for a Class A misdemeanor battery charge.

Collins was lodged at the Putnam County Jail awaiting transfer to a DOC facility when he was erroneously released on Aug. 9 at 12:03 a.m., a representative from the Putnam County Jail said. A warrant for his arrest was issued on Aug. 12, and he was rearrested on Aug. 18.

"A typographical error was made on the abstract of judgment resulting in an early release," court documents said.

Collins is listed as "escaped" on the Indiana Department of Correction Web site. No estimated out date is listed for him at the site or at the Putnam County Jail.

Collins was originally arrested and charged after a Jan. 17 incident in which he allegedly attacked and held a woman against her will, court documents said.

Collins was arrested in February. The victim told police Collins had held her hostage and beaten her in her apartment throughout the night before she reported the crime.

According to court documents, a witness saw Collins and the alleged victim outside the Marathon station just before the police were called. The witness said she saw an altercation between the alleged victim and Collins, and that the alleged victim "was obviously in distress, crying and appeared to have been beaten and was screaming for help and for someone to call the police."

The witness said Collins was grabbing the alleged victim while she struggled and screamed for help.

When Collins realized the witness was calling 911, he got into a vehicle and took off, court records said.

The victim was transported to the Putnam County Hospital for evaluation. Her injuries included two black eyes, scratches to her stomach, inner foot, right chest and behind her right ear, bruising to her inner and upper arm and neck and a scapula scrape. She also sustained swelling to her lower lip and bridge of her nose, police reports said.

Police went back to the alleged victim's apartment and determined that a struggle had taken place, court documents said.

Comments
View 6 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
  • How did the story go from a typo screw up to recounting why he was in jail in the first place. I am sure the story was reported back when he got arrested. Lets follow the rules here.

    "Please be respectful of others and try to stay on topic."

    -- Posted by Oh My Goodness on Sat, Aug 29, 2009, at 6:33 AM
  • The story was reported and has been repeated verbatim from the original story from 4/1/09 in this article. Copy and paste is sad journalism.

    At least they got him back quickly...someone esle could have been hurt.

    -- Posted by citizenoftheworld on Sat, Aug 29, 2009, at 7:38 AM
  • Errors do happen when it comes to paperwork. At least the error was caught and he will go to DOC where he belongs.

    -- Posted by peace2019 on Sat, Aug 29, 2009, at 7:43 AM
  • Way to go Putnam County Sheriffs Dept. You screw up and he gets an escapr charge.... Way to pass the buck as usual!

    -- Posted by Innocent on Sat, Aug 29, 2009, at 8:21 AM
  • For the record, the Putnam County Sheriff's Department does not type Abstracts. The Courts do.

    -- Posted by aok on Sat, Aug 29, 2009, at 8:33 AM
  • COURT ERROR....SUCK IT UP!

    -- Posted by Michele1953 on Mon, Aug 31, 2009, at 8:33 AM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: