Pitt Co. Sheriff's Office explains mistaken inmate identity case

Sheriff: "We can't independently decide to let somebody go"

By: Arthur Mondale | WNCT
Published: October 12, 2009

A Greenville man is back at home after spending a week in jail because someone made a mistake. Greenville police arrested 44-year-old Jessie Ray Hardy, Jr., last week and drove him across the state to face charges for resisting an officer and breaking and entering in Guilford County.
But it turns out they had the wrong Jessie Ray Hardy, Jr.
The man they were looking for was 23 years younger. So with an apology and $58 for a bus ticket home and lunch, Hardy is back in the east. But his neighbors aren’t happy.
"Right now when you're falsely accused that's embarrassing,” said Hardy’s neighbor Mable Ruffin. “You on the news...that's embarrassing…crazy they made this mistake because I thought the system should be better than that."
"There's a lot of people looking at paperwork and verifying documentation so it's just human every now and then somebody's going to miss something, “ said Pitt County Sheriff Mac Manning.
And apparently that’s what happened with Hardy.
Sheriff Manning said Hardy was serving time in the Pitt County Detention Center since August 27th for misdemeanor larceny.
On September 5th, Greenville Police went to the jail with additional charges; failure to appear, resisting arrest and breaking & entering in Guilford county.
"Apparently he did not protest or say to the officer or the jail staff--I've never been to Guilford County,” Sheriff Manning said. “I couldn't possibly be charged with a crime there."
But Sheriff Manning says Pitt County Detention did notice their own discrepancy: Hardy's age.
Sheriff Manning adds, "We alerted them to the fact that there was a discrepancy in the date of birth…We can't independently decide to let somebody go when we have a custody order that says their supposed to be in jail."
Sheriff Manning says Hardy's fingerprints could have tipped everyone off that they had the wrong man. But since Hardy didn't raise a fuss it snowballed into a situation all agencies involved won't soon forget.