An inmate who was mistakenly released from jail has been found in Indianapolis after a weeks-long search.
Blaine Hansen, 20, Indianapolis, was scheduled to be sent to an Indiana prison to serve a year-and-a-half sentence. But due to an error, he was instead released from the jail on July 26.
Sheriff’s deputies and Indianapolis police had been looking for Hansen since then. On Friday, the sheriff’s office asked for the public’s help in finding Hansen.
Hansen was arrested this weekend, and is being held in jail in Marion County, Sheriff Doug Cox said.
Cox had said Hansen would be sent to prison to serve his year-and-a-half sentence once he was picked up. Hansen was convicted of a felony charge of resisting law enforcement and a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident after an incident in Greenwood where he fled from police earlier this year.
In June, he pleaded guilty to both counts and was sentenced to six months in jail and a year-and-a-half on probation. But a week later, jail workers said Hansen and another inmate popped off a sprinkler head and flooded part of the jail, and he was charged with criminal mischief, according to the report from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
In July, Hansen was sentenced to the time he would have served on probation to be served in an Indiana prison instead, according to court records. Five days later, he was mistakenly released from the jail.
A sheriff’s office investigation is underway to figure out how Hansen was mistakenly released from the jail, but Cox suspected it was likely due to a clerical error.
