City jail accidentally lets prostitution suspect go

Remember Pedro Espinoza-Escama, the man who police charged with helping his girlfriend sell her two teenage daughters into prostitution? Well, if you happen to run into him on the street, you really should call HPD: It seems someone accidentally released Espinoza-Escama from a city jail early Friday morning. Oops!

According to police, 21-year-old Espinoza-Escama and his girlfriend, 35-year-old Nelsi Yolanda Latuda, forced Latuda's 14- and 16-year-old daughters into prostitution, and Latuda even passed out business cards advertising the daughters for sex. Espinoza-Escama had been arrested on unrelated Class C misdemeanor charges on June 10 and was booked into the city jail; on Tuesday police questioned him and Latuda and charged them both with two counts each of compelling prostitution of a minor. But somehow, Espinoza-Escama was "inadvertently" released from the Southeast Division jail on Mykawa Road around 3:15 a.m. Friday, HPD spokesman Nate McDuell said.

It's not clear yet exactly how it happened — or it wasn't clear earlier in the weekend, at least. "Obviously, this shouldn't have happened," McDuell said in the Chronicle's Saturday editions. "We are trying to determine if it is a human error, a processing error or a computer error." Anyone with information on Espinoza-Escama's whereabouts should call the HPD Juvenile Sex Crimes Division at 713.731.5335 or Crime Stoppers at 713.222.TIPS.