Followup: Charlestown/47th crash suspect out of jail ‘in error’

(WSB photo from 47th/Charlestown investigation scene, January 9th)
The driver charged with vehicular assault in the 47th/Charlestown car-vs.-pole crash earlier this month is out of jail – but wasn’t supposed to be, and a warrant is out for his arrest. So confirms Commander William Hayes of the King County Jail, though he tells WSB they are still investigating how the mistake happened. You might recall that after the crash on January 9th, 23-year-old driver Mohammad Nema and his passenger – an estranged girlfriend who had a protection order against him – both wound up in the hospital. She got out a few days later, but he was still in the hospital when we followed up on January 14th – that’s when we reported that, after investigators determining that he had been driving under the influence, prosecutors charged him with vehicular assault/domestic violence. We kept checking the King County Jail Register for signs that he was out of the hospital and in jail – and then suddenly discovered a few days ago that he was listed as having been in jail for about an hour on January 16th, with the release reason listed as “error”:

Trying to find out who could tell us how that happened, we finally spoke this afternoon with Commander Hayes, who says he doesn’t know – in situations like this, patients are supposed to be transferred to county custody before getting out of the hospital, and apparently Nema wasn’t – the arrest warrant filed yesterday says simply that he “left Harborview.” (The brief notation from January 16th was apparently a mistaken “booking in absentia”). Cmdr. Hayes hopes to have more information on the investigation by the end of the week. We’ll be checking on that, and we’ll keep watching to see if Nema turns up in custody; at the time of the crash, he had a Burien address.

kte January 26, 2011 (9:55 pm)

Wow. Hope the police are taking proper measures to protect his ex-girlfriend. Scary for her that he is out. And for the rest of us.

ad January 26, 2011 (10:29 pm)

I agree with the above. That’s a tremendous mistake! I wonder how long it took to realize he had left and if they notified the estranged girlfriend.

Anon January 26, 2011 (10:54 pm)

BTW, who is responsible for the accident clean up? There is still a lot of glass all over the sidewalk and parking strip, the fence is damaged, etc ..

I would go to the location with a broom myself if I didn’t already clean up lots of trash in my yard that I did not put there.

WSB January 26, 2011 (11:05 pm)

Anon, even though it’s not their fault, adjacent property owners are responsible for cleaning up sidewalk and parking strip. Even though it’s city right-of-way.
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Sloan – the top was cut off by rescuers to get the two people out, right after the crash.

Sloan January 26, 2011 (11:05 pm)

You mean people survived that crash? holy smokes! The top of that car is ripped off. That’s amazing anyone lived!

Dave January 26, 2011 (11:43 pm)

Is it just me or does anyone else think it’s weird that someone gets into a car with a person they have a restraining order against?
Am I missing something?

KCH January 27, 2011 (2:18 am)

Thanks for the heads up WSB! I have alerted all of the other telephone poles in the area. I probably should look into buying a generator as well.

homesweethome January 27, 2011 (6:46 am)

Protection orders are very weak documents, the police are not available to around each time one of these is breached so its worth considering that the female passenger was not in the vehicle willingly.

WSB January 27, 2011 (7:14 am)

Home – We did stress that in prior coverage. The court documents to this point have contained NO information on how/why she wound up in the car. We’ve been following the case progress, in fact, hoping to cover initial hearings to find out a few of those missing details – and that’s how we noticed not only hadn’t he appeared in court, he wasn’t in jail.
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Craig – As our logs verify, WSB is checked multiple times daily by a variety of other local-news outlets, large and small. They also “follow” us on Twitter, where we often mention first word of something in progress, as well as story links. (News outlets have FOREVER been used as “tip sheets” for each other, so it’s not unique to us.)
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You’ll often see stories broken here (like a couple weeks ago, when we discovered one of the Highland Park hate-crime defendants had pleaded guilty in December and it had gone unnoticed) turn up elsewhere hours or days later. That’s their choice whether to pursue it or not (some credit us and some don’t, and if they honestly duplicate our legwork or confirm what we reported by using their own sources, there’s no law that says they have to), but my job is to find and present the news to tens of thousands of West Seattleites via WSB, not to market it to competitors. One thing we do have is our informal partnership with the Times, which showcases links from WSB (and dozens of other small news orgs with whom it’s partnered) to a much bigger audience when merited, and I’ll be pointing this out to them today in case they haven’t linked to it already. – TR

Craig January 27, 2011 (7:13 am)

WSB, once again, you’re on top of important news as the result of some superior investigative journalism. Well Done!

I hope (and perhaps you can help some) that other local media stations find interest in the story and carry it to further expose the “mistake,” helping identify any weaknesses in the system.

Craig

Gidge January 27, 2011 (9:24 am)

Dave–it’s not uncommon for someone to be the protected party of a no contact order and still spend time around the person who isn’t supposed to have contact with them. It’s a pretty common dynamic in domestic violence relationtionships for the abused person to go back to the abuser on a regular basis. That’s particularly true if it’s an NCO issued related to a criminal charge. In that case, it could have been the prosecutor who asked for the NCO, even if the woman didn’t want it (as opposed to an anti-harassment, where she filed the petition). When the no contact order was signed, though, the judge would have advised him that he could be arrested for violating the NCO, even if she initiated the contact.

Digi January 27, 2011 (11:42 am)

I hope they get this idiot in jail fast! He caused our power outage that morning that lasted over 10 hours. It was a cold, dark day sitting in the house thanks to this moron.

NotMe January 27, 2011 (4:27 pm)

Hey Digi… it is all about you, isn’t it, you poor thing. Meanwhile, the passenger is still probably very sore with her injuries. Nice of you to mention how you are faring through all this. Thank God you are ok.

Sorry, comment time is over.