Dickinson man released from prison, then forced to return due to 'clerical error'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- He spent more than 20 years behind bars on a drug conviction, then had his sentence commuted by former president Joe Biden.

But, after going home, a Dickinson man was ordered to return to prison after what his lawyer calls a clerical error.

Ronald Lymuel was released from prison in February.

He immediately met up with his family.

"They're showing me how much they love me and all the time I've been missing them," he said. "Man, it's a good feeling, you know, to see that."

But Lymuel is now back in prison. ABC13 reached him on the phone.

Brent Mayr is his attorney.

"I've never heard of anything like this happening," Mayr said.

Back in 2005, Lymuel was caught with crack cocaine.

He was already on probation for another crime, and was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Then, this January, President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 2500 people with nonviolent drug convictions.

Lymuel was on the list and scheduled to be released in July.

He was surprised to be suddenly released in February, but his freedom only lasted for two weeks.

"We're getting ready for him to move on to the next phase in his life," Mayr said. "And then we find out that, 'Nope, we need you to come back to the Bureau of Prisons. We weren't supposed to release you.' At that point, it was shock, it was, 'What do you mean?'"

"You gotta understand what it did to me. After 20 years, y'all let me out, let me go home and then you called me two weeks later, telling me it was a cancellation on the system, so I gotta come back in after an that y'all made? Y'all could have just ate that four months or at least let me out and kept me on a monitor," Lymuel said.

Lymuel is now 41 years old, hoping he'll still be released in July.

"We're concerned that something is going to pop up where that grant of clemency is not going to be honored," Mayr said.

"They don't care. 'We made a mistake, we can get away with it, we're the federal government, he gotta come back. If he don't come back, we're going to put a warrant out for his arrest.' Even though he did everything he was supposed to do when he got out," Lymeul's sister, Tiy Bilbo, said.

"I regret all them charges. When I do come home, I'm done with that. I ain't going down that road again. If it's up to me, I'll never come back here," Lymuel said. "My kids grew up without me, so being in my grandkids' lives is important."

It's his family, five kids and five grandkids, that Lymuel thinks about now.

For the past 20 years, they are what he has dreamed about.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons hasn't responded to our questions asking how this could have happened and whether anything has changed with Lymuel's scheduled July release.

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