Michigan corrections department acknowledges 'failure'

DEARBORN (AP) -- The Michigan Department of Corrections acknowledges it made a record-keeping mistake that prevented police from looking for a man who is charged in the slayings of two Dearborn discount store workers. Lavere Bryant is a convicted sex offender, but he never self-reported after being released from prison two years ago. That's because prison officials made an error, the Detroit Free Press reported recently, failing to change information on the state's sex offender registry that would have let law enforcement know he wasn't imprisoned. Now, state corrections officials are conducting an internal investigation to figure out how the mistake happened. "Obviously there was a failure there," department spokesman John Cordell told the newspaper. Bryant, 34, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of felony murder as well as armed robbery, unlawful imprisonment, felon in possession of a firearm and felony firearm charges. Police and prosecutors say he's responsible for the deaths of 20-year-olds Brenna Machus and Joseph Orlando, who were both Family Dollar Store employees. Machus disappeared July 15, the same night Orlando was fatally shot in the store. Her body was discovered in a wooded area less than 2 miles away. "I did not murder" the victims, Bryant said as he left a Dearborn courtroom following his arraignment last Wednesday. He was ordered held without bond and requested a court-appointed attorney. Authorities have not disclosed a motive in the killings. Bryant in 1999 pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to jail time and probation and had to register as a sex offender, according to a court filing and the Michigan State Police. Two years later, Bryant was locked up on an assault charge. He was transferred to the Ionia Correctional Facility in 2011 from a prison in Marquette and was released days later, Cordell said. The records office at the Ionia prison, though, neglected to change Bryant's address on the sex offender registry. "It appears that a failure to note a change of address resulted in him not being active on the registry," Cordell said. Had law enforcement been aware that Bryant was released, he would have been required to report to a police agency every July and January, said state police Sgt. Bruce Payne with the sex offender registry unit. Bryant, who is to be listed as a sex offender until 2057, never reported. That would have triggered police to begin looking for him. When Orlando and Machus were killed, Bryant still was listed on the registry as being in prison. Machus' brother, Ryan, said he was disappointed to find out that Bryant's information was not updated on the registry. "It makes me very sick to my stomach to know that our systems are failing us," Ryan Machus said last Friday. Published: Tue, Jul 30, 2013