PHOENIX — An Arizona inmate at the Lewis state prison complex is accused of using fraudulent court documents to get released in June, years before his sentence was up.
David Cramer submitted fraudulent court paperwork to both the court system and the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, Director Ryan Thornell told state lawmakers at the very end of a five-hour hearing Tuesday.
“Inmate Cramer, through the court system – to us, it's a very complex situation – but submitted fraudulent court paperwork through the court system, but also through the department as well,” he told state Sen. Kevin Payne.
Payne, a Republican representing Legislative District 27, had asked Thornell “about an inmate named Cramer” who allegedly was released because of falsified paperwork.
According to court documents obtained by ABC15, paperwork filed with the court in May contained “a superimposed picture of a court seal.” The documents asked court to vacate Cramer’s sentences.
“Black Canyon Enterprises PLLC created a document called ‘Memorandum Decision’ and claims that the Presiding Judge is ordering that sentences by vacated,” the ruling says.
The request to vacate Cramer’s sentences was denied on June 3.
Thornell told lawmakers “a lot of fraud, manipulation, other things that took place” led to Cramer’s release in June.
The mistake wasn’t noticed until August. Cramer was apprehended the next day, Thornell testified.
Prison records show Cramer has been in the Browning Unit of the state prison in Florence since Aug. 21.
“He's actually at Browning Unit in maximum security, because we're treating it as if the same logic as an escape,” Thornell told lawmakers.
Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office told ABC15 it is looking into the allegations but can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.
ABC15 has also reached out to the Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Thornell spoke at a legislative panel on safety issues within the prison system. Lawmakers grilled Thornell about assaults, overdoses and an unprecedented number of homicides within the prisons and heard from former Arizona prison wardens.
There have been nine homicides within state prisons this year.
Ricky Wassenaar, one of two inmates behind the longest prison hostage crisis in U.S. history, is suspected in three of the killings. The three inmates died in the Tucson prison complex in April, just months after Wassenaar was moved from a maximum-security cell into the general population.
According to the department’s numbers, inmate-on-inmate assaults have more than doubled since Thornell became ADCRR director in 2023.
