Crime victims accidentally sent false messages

KOKOMO – A woman whose son was fatally shot in 2003 was among the hundreds of crime victims who received erroneous automated phone calls telling them that an offender who injured or killed one of their relatives would soon be released from prison.

Sheila Richardson was at work Thursday when she got an automated call from the state Department of Correction telling her that Joshua Napolitano, the man convicted of killing her son, was being released from prison eight years earlier than expected.

“All of sudden, my entire world stopped spinning for me,” she told the Kokomo Tribune. “It took me back to when it first happened.”

Richardson called the Kokomo attorney who prosecuted the case. He told Richardson that it was an error and Napolitano was still serving the 30-year sentence he received four years ago for murdering her son, Mitchell Bundy.

Richardson was the recipient of one of more than 330 incorrect automated phone calls triggered Thursday by a computer glitch during maintenance on the statewide victim information service that allows victims to sign up for automated updates on offenders.

The same glitch also resulted in thousands of e-mails falsely sent to other Indiana crime victims telling them that offenders were being released from prison.

Edwin G. Buss, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction, said no one was put in danger.

“The IDOC is committed to providing accurate public safety information, and we apologize for the errors made,” he said.