State Supreme Court: Racine Man To Serve Prison Time Despite DOC Probation Mistake

A Racine man who thought he was off probation when he threatened his girlfriend with a toy gun will be spending three years in prison for violating his probation. That’s the result of a 5-2 state Supreme Court ruling today in the case of Ardonis Greer.

Thursday’s ruling turns on an odd twist of events that began with a clerical error made by Greer’s parole agent. Greer served 14 months in prison for a 2005 conviction for possession and sale of marijuana. When he was released in 2007, he was supposed to serve three years of probation. His parole agent, however, erroneously gave him a discharge document and told him all his civil rights were restored and he was off probation.

Two years later, in 2009, when he was charged with threatening his girlfriend, the Department of Corrections discovered the clerical error and told Greer he was actually still on probation for the 2005 charges.

Greer’s attorney, Jennifer Severino, says the ruling, which upholds the DOC’s decision, unfairly lets the department off the hook for misleading Greer.

“There’s no ramifications for the (Department of Corrections), for their inability to accurately keep their records,” she said. “This was a period of six years that they had to catch this error.. and they never caught it.”

The majority ruling against Greer, written by Justice Annette Ziegler, cites similar cases where courts have ruled that a negligent error by the DOC is not grounds for defendants to challenge a decision to revoke probation. Zeigler wrote:

“In sum, and with these limitations in mind, it is inconceivable that a sentence, validly imposed by a circuit court, could be undermined by a mere clerical error by an agency.”

Writing in dissent, Justice Anne Walsh Bradley said it is unfair to hold Greer responsible for violating probation when he had been told he was not on probation.