Ohio's prisons department has reinstated a parole officer after determining he didn't violate policies or procedures while supervising a former inmate now accused of killing a policeman.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction put the parole officer on paid administrative leave after 32-year-old Herschel Ray Jones III was arrested in the mid-January shooting of an auxiliary officer in Danville. Jones has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges in Knox County and remains jailed.
Jones' brother-in-law told WBNS-TV that Jones' sister had concerns about Jones threatening others and having guns, so she tried to call his parole officer Jan. 1 and left a message.
A prisons department spokesman says the department determined Jones' sister mistakenly called local probation services, not the state parole authority that was supervising Jones.