A serial bank robber awaiting sentencing at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan was “accidentally released” from federal custody just days before a series of ignored protocols gave Jeffrey Epstein the opportunity for his apparent suicide.
Michael Matthews, 58, was told Aug. 7 he was free to leave the New York facility which, in recent days, has come under fire after Epstein, 66, died from an apparent suicide after being left alone in his cell for hours on Saturday — despite recently being on suicide watch, and despite protocol requiring otherwise.
NEW YORK LOCKUP WHERE JEFFREY EPSTEIN AS HELD RARE PLACE FOR INMATE SUICIDES, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS
Matthews’ family told the New York Daily News that a counselor at MCC invited him to their office, where he was given a card to ride the subway and paperwork to sign to be released. He knew he was awaiting sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 20, but didn’t speak up.
Richard Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated in a letter obtained by Fox News on Thursday that Matthews — who previously served time for bank robbery — was released, despite being held “pursuant to a permanent order of detention.”
He explains that Matthews was arrested in January after he failed to appear at a halfway house in Brooklyn after being released from a federal facility in New Jersey. He was charged with escaping custody, and was also charged in three bank robberies during the time he was supposed to be in the halfway house, according to prosecutors. – READ MORE