Mistaken identity mishap at Mobile Metro

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A convicted felon was accidentally released from metro jail, but sheriff's office officials say it wasn't their fault.

Two men with the same name were arrested around the same time in mid-September, and both were released on the same day. The problem is that one of them was let go by mistake.

Twenty-one-year-old Paul Bryant Price said he was glad to get out of Metro jail following his arrest on an outstanding traffic violation. But he wasn't happy to learn jail officials had given his $300 iPhone and his identification to a convicted felon, Paul Williams Price.

"They said Paul Price ATW. You know, I came up front. They said we got some good news for you and some bad news. And I said 'I'm free to go right?'" Paul Bryant Price said.

Price said he asked what the bad news was, and officers told him they gave his property to a man with the same name.

"They give him my cell phone, my wallet, my belt, my ID and everything. My social security card that was in there," Price said.

Paul William Price, the other Paul, was arrested for a probation violation. But was this a case of mistaken identity? The Sheriff's office says no.

Sheriff's officials said Price didn't get out of jail because he had the same name as another inmate. The jail had a court order to let him go.

That order came from Circuit Court Judge Rick Stout who later sent another order citing the error.

"There's all kind of checks and balances that you can look at in the jail. But we released him, because we had a court order to release him," Sheriff's spokesperson Lori Myles said.

Myles said it would be very difficult for jail officials to accidentally release an inmate. She said, with all the checks in place, someone would have been in serious trouble had the wrong prisoner actually been released.

"You don't just go on the person's name. As a matter of fact, you go on the social security number and the booking number and so many other things that we check, date of birth," Myles said.

Paul Bryant Price maintains that it was jail officials who gave away his iPhone.

The other Price, Paul Williams, is back in jail after turning himself in. He told authorities he pitched the phone and identification out the window; he will now face a new charge: theft.

Myles said Paul Bryant Price will be reimbursed by the Sheriff's Office if he can prove he owned the phone.

"I guess they didn't check our social security numbers. And that's why they give him my stuff. They didn't check social security numbers," Price said.