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Victim's outcry prompts investigation into accidental release of Jefferson County inmate

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office confirmed to 12News Wednesday that Billy Woolley was actually out of jail for 27 hours due to clerical error.

BEAUMONT, Texas — A woman is demanding answers following the release of an accused violent offender. 

Billy Lynn Woolley is charged with several crimes including indecency with a child and sexual assault. His bond was set at $400,000.

On March 23, 2023, Woolley was released from the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a much lower bond amount, due to a clerical error. 

Woolley was eventually re-arrested.

12News previously reported Woolley was only out of jail for a few hours, according to Jefferson County Sheriff Zena Stephens.

An alleged victim of Woolley emailed 12News to say, that wasn't true.

The county later confirmed to 12News, Woolley was actually out of jail for 27 hours.

"Are we going to wake up tomorrow morning and he's going to be gone or is he going to do something in the night to one of the women in Southeast Texas," the victim told 12News.

The woman who reached out to 12News claims she was in an abusive marriage with Woolley for eight years.

When she found out Woolley bonded out of the Jefferson County Jail, she reached out to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office.

"I said I happen to know that he is waiting to bond out right now. He's just waiting for it to process and they'll pick him up so, she had to kinda talk me down a little bit. She said he'll still be on home confinement, I said that didn't really help us last time," she said. 

The victim asked the county to investigate how it happened.

"If I hadn't raised all kinds of noise would they have even known that this had even happened because I was told they found out is the DA asked Judge Stevens why did you lower his bonds and Judge Stevens said it didn't," she said. 

Jefferson County officials previously told 12News it was a computer error that caused the bond amount to be lowered in the system. 

12News pressed officials for answers and they confirmed Wednesday, a human error is what eventually prompted Woolley's release. 

"What happens is they send memorandums and instead of sending a separate memorandum, it included old bond amounts with new conditions. So, whenever the jail sees it they think it's new bond amounts with new conditions," Jefferson County Chief Deputy John Shauberger said. 

Shauberger says the county has since then adopted a new system .

"We 're hoping that the odyssey system will reduce some redundancies in error and having a human interpret a document whenever that court can actually enter their own document and we know what it means," he said.

This victim says Woolley needs to stay in custody, while he awaits trial because she fears for other alleged victims of his. 

"I personally am safe because I live out of state, but the women in Southeast Texas, all of his ex-wives that are still there, all of his victims are still, they're still in danger," she said. 

Woolley faces four separate charges of sexual assault, aggravated assault, indecency with a child and felony assault-family violence.

The Jefferson County Jail confirmed his bonds now total the correct amount of $400,000. 

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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information 

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