CHICAGO _ A man charged with threatening violence at gay bars in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood was accidentally released from Cook County Jail this week and remains at large, officials said.
Officials say an apparent communication breakdown between the state's attorney's office and the sheriff's office led to the release of Shane Sleeper, 31, on Tuesday night.
Sleeper was arrested in February and initially charged with misdemeanor charges of obstructing and resisting a peace officer, according to Cara Smith, policy chief for Cook County Sherif Tom Dart. In one of his threats, Sleeper allegedly said "Orlando will come to Chicago," an apparent reference to the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
On Tuesday, the misdemeanor charges were dismissed and felony charges of state terrorism, hate crime and harassment were filed against Sleeper, according to state's attorney's office spokesman Robert Foley. Sleeper was ordered held without bail.
Smith said the sheriff's office only knew of the misdemeanor charges being dismissed, not about new felony charges being filed against Sleeper. So he was released.
"Preliminarily, it appears that the only cases he was being held on were dismissed and the sheriff's office was never notified of any additional charges that were brought," Smith said. "We were never notified. Our phones are on 24 hours a day. We complied with the only court order we received."
But Foley countered that the sheriff's office is responsible for custody of defendants.
"Mr. Sleeper was in custody when the sheriff's office brought him to court yesterday," Foley said in emailed statement. "He was arraigned in a felony trial court room, where he was assigned a no bail status and left in the custody of the sheriff's office."
During the hearing before Cook County Judge Matthew Coghlan, Sleeper was arraigned on charges of falsely making a terrorist threat, a hate crime, harassment through electronic communications, criminal trespassing, stalking, assault, false personation of a police officer and telephone harassment, Foley said.
Police were still searching for Sleeper Thursday morning. His last known address was on Chicago's North Side, and he was described as white, 5-foot-11, weighing about 185 pounds.
