South Fulton County

Victim scared for her life after alleged rapist let out of jail over police mistake

ATLANTA — A woman says she's in hiding because the man accused of beating and then raping her is back on the streets, just days after the crime.

The chief jailer at the Fulton County Jail said rape suspect Quinton Gray walked out of jail Monday night because he did not get a court hearing within 72 hours.

The East Point Police Department told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne that it is taking ownership of the mistake and has already made changes to prevent something like this from happening again.

"It's devastating and it's scary because I have to walk around looking over my back," Gray's alleged victim told Winne. "He beat me. Then he raped me."

We are not naming the alleged victim.

An East Point police official said that, after great police work and a chase, investigators arrested Quinton Gray around 1 a.m. on Sept. 4 on a rape charge.

According to an arrest warrant, Gray was held inside the East Point City Jail until Friday evening of Sept. 6 but did not make it to the Fulton County Jail early enough to make a court hearing he's required to get within 72 hours of arrest. That time would have been up at 1 a.m. Saturday.

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Winne talked to Gray on Monday night inside the Fulton County Jail.

"I'm innocent," Gray told Winne.

"You didn't do the rape you are accused of?" Winne asked

"No, sir, not at all," Gray said.

An official told Winne that East Point authorities are looking into how this happened and plan to seek an indictment of Gray that would provide a legal basis for arresting him again.

The official said Gray can still be held accountable.

"Mr. Gray should have appeared before a Fulton County magistrate within 72 hours. He did not. Our only recourse, in fact, was to give him a signature bond. The law requires it. This case is not dismissed," said Fulton County Chief Magistrate Judge Cassandra Kirk.

"If he had been delivered to Fulton County jail on time, he would not have been released from jail when he was?" Winne asked Kirk.

"His case would have proceeded very differently. He would remain in jail," Kirk said.

Fulton County's chief jailer, Col. Mark Adger, said Gray finished being booked into his jail about 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, but the next felony court hearing at the jail was at 11 a.m. that morning, which was hours too late to meet the 72-hour requirement.

"He sat in East Point City Jail too long without a hearing?" Winne asked Adger.

"That's correct," Adger said.

Now, Gray's alleged victim says she gone into hiding.

"I feel like he stole more than just my body from me," she told Winne.

Kirk said that, once the case got to the Fulton County level, everything happened correctly under the law.

She said this has happened before with a couple of municipalities in Fulton County and that it has happened often enough that she has contacted police chiefs about the issue.

Kirk said that, had it not been for the technicality, Gray would not have been released Monday night and he would have had to seek a bond from a superior court judge at a later date.