By Jane Prendergast
and Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A high-tech gadget put three bank-robbery suspects in jail, but human error let two of them out early.

Police and federal authorities spent Thursday looking for James Black and Leonard Drister, both accused of robbing a Springfield Township bank April 12, and trying to explain the mistake that left the pair on the run.

The men, who were held in lieu of $1 million cash bonds, were released Wednesday night after state charges were dismissed. They had been indicted on federal bank robbery and firearms charges, but deputies at the Hamilton County jail never knew that.

The jail usually is informed by a phone call or via computer.

"In this case, that didn't happen," said Fred Alverson, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Gregory Lockhart. "This time, there was a lapse in procedure. It should not have happened."

Without any federal charges or orders to hold prisoners for federal prosecution, the jail deputies Wednesday night did what they always do in that situation: They told the men they were free, got them their clothes and possessions and let them walk out the door.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wende Cross walked into a federal courtroom Thursday morning expecting to see all three bank robbery suspects waiting for a hearing on the charges. Instead, she saw only Trevor Woods, one of the U.S. Marshals' Top 15 Most Wanted, who was arrested with Black and Drister.

Cross walked over to the U.S. marshal, who had brought Woods from the Hamilton County jail. She asked where the other two suspects were, and the marshal said they weren't at the jail.

The three men were the first suspects in Greater Cincinnati to be caught with a Global Positioning System tracking device. The electronic device - dropped in the bag of money - showed dispatchers where the men drove after the PNC Bank robbery. Officers caught them in Pleasant Ridge, where they said Drister fired a gun at them.

Woods remains in custody. Local charges against him were dismissed, too, but he's wanted on more than 100 robberies in California, so there was a federal order to hold him.

Black, 33, and Drister, 31, were let out at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. They were last seen about 5 a.m. Thursday, wearing white "muscle'' shirts, baggy blue jeans and possibly sandals, according to a wanted-person broadcast repeated over police radios throughout Thursday afternoon. Officers were told to use caution if they saw the men and call the Cincinnati office of the FBI.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Barnett referred all questions to Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen's office.

"There's no indication that the sheriff's people did anything wrong,'' Allen said. "When they were notified by us, they had no reason to hold them.''

Allen said he wasn't "going to point the finger anywhere.'' But he said his office received two calls from Lockhart's office in which a federal prosecutor asked his local counterpart not to take state charges to a grand jury.

Allen said he's usually inclined to take the case to a grand jury anyway, just to make sure there remain charges on which to hold suspects. But he said he decided against doing it after the second call, in which the federal prosecutor assured that the three would face federal charges.

At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Allen said, his assistant prosecutor handling the case, Rick Gibson, got a voice mail from someone in Lockhart's office that said the men had been indicted in federal court. Gibson picked up the voice mail later in the afternoon and notified his colleague who handles the grand jury to ask that the charges be dismissed.

During that time, Allen said, federal officials had trouble finding a judge to sign the documents that would have kept Black and Drister behind bars.

Alverson said federal and local authorities often deal with cases in which federal charges are filed and state charges are dropped. Federal charges are supposed to be filed before the state charges are dropped, and the jail is supposed to be notified of the change so it's clear why prisoners are being held.

Investigators expect to question Woods about the possible location of Black and Drister. Alverson said federal officials will turn their attention to finding out what went wrong and how it can be fixed after they catch Black and Drister.

"We want to look at our process and see what changes need to be made," he said. "But our first priority now is capturing these two defendants and getting them back in jail."

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com or dhorn@enquirer.com.