Brett Kelman

The Desert Sun

Authorities have released a Palm Springs man who was held at the Banning jail for nearly two weeks without being charged with any crime, and the Public Defender's Office has begun a search to see if any other inmates have been detained in the same way.

News of the man's worrisome case also has prompted the Palm Springs Police Department to tighten its policies on re-arresting suspects at the jail.

Loy Ramirez, 61, was arrested on July 16 by Palm Springs police officers as a suspect in the rape of a homeless woman. However, Ramirez never appeared before a judge to be officially charged, and authorities kept him behind bars by twice releasing him and then immediately re-arresting him as he walked out of the jailhouse gates.

Jail records show Ramirez was finally released – for real this time – on Thursday night, hours after The Desert Sun published a story about his case online. The release wasn’t confirmed until Monday.

“It was difficult to believe that he was incarcerated without charges being brought for so long,” said Tom Cavanaugh, head of the Public Defender's Office in Indio, which represents Ramirez. “He, like everybody else, is presumed innocent.”

Man re-arrested as he walked out of jail — twice

In response to Ramirez's case, the Palm Springs Police Department conducted an internal review of its re-arrest procedures. On Tuesday, the department said it will continue to occasionally re-arrest suspects as they exit the jail, but now has stricter protocols limiting when this tactic can be used. Police spokesman Sgt. William Hutchinson said Chief Bryan Reyes determined that improved “communication and internal procedures” were needed when a jailhouse re-arrest was under consideration.

From now on, officers must check the status of a case – confirming, for example, if it’s still being investigated – and seek approval from both the lead detective and a detective supervisor before a re-arrest can be performed, Hutchinson said.

Cavanaugh said the policy change was insubstantial because the police department should not be re-arresting suspects at the jail. The "charade" of pretending to release inmates, only to put them back in a jail cell, is illegal no matter how infrequently police do it, Cavanaugh said.

"It is unreasonable to interpret the law or constitution as permitting this behavior," Cavanaugh said. "Never."

Normally, anyone who is jailed on suspicion of a crime is required to appear in front of a judge for an arraignment hearing within 48 hours. At this hearing, the defendant is informed of the charges that prosecutors have filed against them and enters an initial plea. If law enforcement do not have enough evidence to substantiate charges at an arraignment, the suspect must be let go.

If Ramirez’s case, however, he was let go for only an instant. On two separate occasions, Ramirez was escorted to the jailhouse gate by facility staff and then immediately re-arrested by a Palm Springs police officer who was waiting outside the facility. The officer then returned Ramirez to the jail to be re-booked and put back in his cell.

Last week, Hutchinson described Ramirez's re-arrest as a “common procedure” used when investigators need more time to build a case or alert a victim to the release of a suspect. But the tactic drew concerns from District Attorney Mike Hestrin, who said he had never heard of a case where a suspect had been re-arrested at the jail twice.

Cavanaugh said the Public Defender’s Office is now checking with all of its other clients to see if anyone else was arrested and re-arrested in the same manner as Ramirez. Cases like these could have stayed “under the radar” because most defendants aren’t appointed an attorney until they actually appear at their arraignment, which would have been delayed in cases like this.

Hutchinson said the police department does not keep stats on how many people Palm Springs police have re-arrested at the jailhouse gates, but the police chief has instructed his staff to start tracking this statistic. Hutchinson said the department has reached out to the Public Defender's Office about the Ramirez case.

Police are still investigating the case in which Ramirez was initially arrested. Hutchinson has said that a homeless woman was allegedly raped in a drainage ditch at the corner of Mesquite Avenue and S Belardo Road around midnight on the morning of July 5. Anyone who may have witnessed the crime, or has any information about the case, has been asked to contact the police department.

Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email at brett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.