By Gintautas Dumcius
Reporter Correspondent

In a rare but potentially embarrassing gaffe, officers at Dorchester District Court this week appeared to release the wrong man, allowing him to waltz out of the courthouse and bolt down Washington Street, as confusion reigned inside.

A young male prisoner was released on Monday, shortly before 3:30 p.m., from the holding pen in the courthouse's arraignment session, despite the warnings from the aunt of the person the judge actually meant to let go.

The state Trial Court's Security Department has opened up an investigation into the incident, according to Thomas Connolly, the department's acting director of security. Connolly declined to provide the Reporter with a copy of the incident report, citing the ongoing investigation.

Anthony Owens, clerk of Dorchester District Court, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.Other clerks at the courthouse could not confirm the male's name or other details.

Michelle Jenkins, whose nephew Godfrey Hall had been arraigned for a probation violation, attempted to tell the court officer removing the individual's handcuffs and leg chains of the potential mistake. But the officer told her to sit down before she could get the words out.

"I said, 'You got it mixed up,'" she said she told him afterward.

By then the prisoner had calmly walked out of the courtroom and down the hall, sans shoelaces, before being briefly stopped by a few court officers manning the metal detector at the courthouse entrance, according to witnesses. Thinking he was the person who was supposed to be released, they asked him if he wanted his confiscated items. He declined, walking down the front steps and eventually breaking into a run down towards Codman Square.

Three court officers quickly realized the possible mistake and rushed out after him, past a private investigator who was heading into the courthouse and had seen the young man run by.

"He came flying by me at 100 miles per hour, just running straight down," said the investigator, who declined to provide his name due to the nature of his job. "He never stopped."

The court officers glumly walked back to the courthouse minutes later.

The incident came near the end of a busy day for the courthouse. On top of the usual heavy Monday load of a weekend of arrests that led to a packed holding area in the courtroom, there were also four men arrested in a sex sting by District C-11 police officers.