The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department admitted mistakes and problems in its jail booking process contributed to a man being incorrectly identified and wrongly placed in a vocational program where he is accused of fatally stabbing a fellow detainee with a screwdriver, according to a letter from a department administrator.
Had the man been correctly placed in the jail, he wouldn’t have been given access to the tool that investigators say he used in the murder.
The letter was written in response to a Riverside County civil grand jury report that found sheriff’s department staff failed to properly identify 55-year-old Scott Lowder before he was housed in the jail’s least restrictive facilities, instead of being placed in the most restrictive due to his violent criminal history. Lowder had used an alias when he was arrested, and a subsequent report showing his true identity did not result in him being put in more secure housing. The jurors reported that had the error been prevented, the killing would have never happened…