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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Furlough labeled violation of policy

This month’s furlough of a violent felon with a long criminal history and brand-new convictions was a violation of policy, Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said Tuesday.

Tucker said his policy on furloughs is simple: to oppose them. Period.

No exceptions, Tucker said. Especially not for someone like Jeremy A. Arnold, whom police have described as increasingly dangerous.

“I’m just amazed that we have to send it out every year for people to remember it,” Tucker said of the no-furlough policy.

He said Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll “came in just shaking his head” when Arnold failed to return from a furlough. “I told him, ‘Find out who did that,’ ” Tucker said.

The prosecutor said he was surprised to learn the person responsible was veteran Deputy Prosecutor Mark Cipolla, supervisor of the gang unit. “I know the police love Mark,” Tucker said. “They think he’s a great gang prosecutor.”

Cipolla has declined to discuss the incident, but Tucker said Cipolla “made a mistake and he knows it.”

The incident will “probably not” result in disciplinary action, but deputy prosecutors were reminded of the no-furlough policy again Monday in a staff meeting, Tucker said.

Cipolla told Driscoll he was harried by several pending cases when he signed off on the furlough, Tucker said.

The seven-day furlough, during which Arnold got married, was spelled out in a written plea bargain that was discussed in court. Arnold was married in the county courthouse May 12, a day before he was to have returned for sentencing.

“He can get married in prison as far as I’m concerned,” Tucker said. “Even a funeral, we’re reluctant to let a guy go without an escort.”

Arnold was a fugitive for a week before police tracked him down and arrested him Friday.

The 28-year-old convict had just pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree robbery, three counts of intimidating witnesses in two separate cases, and five counts of second-degree burglary when his furlough was approved. Cipolla agreed to dismiss a number of other counts in five cases, including alleged burglaries at five businesses, and to recommend an eight-year prison sentence.

The crimes Arnold admitted included an armed and violent robbery in a home in which there were three young children. The standard sentencing range for the crimes is approximately 61/3 to 81/2 years.

The deal called for Cipolla to recommend a one-week furlough in which Arnold would be monitored electronically. The written agreement says any sentence for failing to return from the furlough or for any crime committed while on furlough is to be added onto, not folded into, the plea-bargain sentence.

Those conditions were discussed in a hearing before Judge Tari Eitzen and were incorporated in an order granting the furlough, which Judge Linda Tompkins signed May 5. Tompkins said she signed the order with no knowledge of Arnold’s criminal history or of police concerns that furloughing him would endanger the public.

Arnold was convicted in 1995 in U.S. District Court in Spokane of distributing cocaine and of carrying a firearm during a drug crime.

His prior Spokane County convictions, including 12 as a juvenile, are for burglaries, car thefts, possession of stolen property, attempting to elude police, first-degree escape and second-degree assault.

The assault conviction was in a 2003 plea bargain in which Arnold was sentenced to 13 months in prison. Arnold had been charged with three counts of first-degree assault and two counts of drive-by shooting in three separate incidents in that 2003 case.

“It’s really hard to explain,” Tucker said of Arnold’s furlough. “I’m really glad nobody was injured.”