Clerical error sets accused rapist free from Tulsa Jail

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A clerical error has led to another mistaken release from the Tulsa Jail, officials said Friday.<br> <br>Jail officials released Warren David Dixon Tuesday night after they received

Saturday, April 26th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A clerical error has led to another mistaken release from the Tulsa Jail, officials said Friday.

Jail officials released Warren David Dixon Tuesday night after they received a release order from the Court Clerk's Office, records show. The $5,000 bond was for the release of a man charged with violating a protective order, a misdemeanor. The bond was erroneously posted with Dixon's case number and issued with the name Douglas Earl Dixonson, according to court records. The man for whom the bond should have been posted is Douglas Earl Dickson, 43.

An arrest warrant was issued Friday for Dixon, 20, but he was not in custody Friday evening, according to jail records.

Marvin Branham, a spokesman for Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the Tulsa Jail, said the jail released Dixon because workers received an "order of release from custody"

Court Clerk employee Sonya Smith said it appears that when the
bond was paid for Dickson, it was recorded as paid for Dixon's case
number, not Dickson's.

"It looks like it may have been a paperwork error," Smith
said.

Bond was posted to the correct case number Friday and Dickson
was released from custody, records show. Roxana Sellars, the bonding agent who posted the bond for Dickson, said she had been informed her about the error but she knew little else about the release.

Dixon originally was booked into the jail on the rape charge -- a felony -- in December, and he was being held in lieu of $50,000 bond, according to his arrest report.

In 2001, errors led to the mistaken releases of three inmates and two were mistakenly released last year from the Tulsa Jail.