DETROIT – The Michigan Department of Corrections plans to audit the state's 70,000 parolees and probationers after a parolee was arrested in the brutal beating death of his father.
Tucker Cipriano, 19, is charged with first degree murder. Prosecutors say he beat his father to death with a baseball bat and attacked his mother Rose and brother Sal, leaving them in critical condition.
Cipriano was placed on probation for a drug conviction in February. The probation officer handling Cipriano's case has been suspended since the attack.
"Its difficult to see some of the very violent crimes that folks we are responsible for supervising are accused of," said Russ Martan, a spokesperson for the MDOC.
An internal audit within the department began earlier this year following the Tonia Watson and Allan Wood case. Wood and Watson are accused of killing 80-year-old Nancy Dailey inside her Royal Oak home. Both Wood and Watson were parole absconders when they allegedly committed the crime.
A parole agent and supervisor also were suspended earlier this year after 19-year-old Joshua Brown was charged in the murder of a 12-year-old girl. Brown was supposed to be on an electronic tether that was never activated.
"We're going to take a look at every single probation officer and everyone they have reporting to them to make sure they are meeting the supervisional requirements the we put in place," said Martan. "We go in and investigate these cases to see if in fact they did follow all of those (requirements). If they didn't then we would address them through the disciplinary process."
Right now, a total of five MDOC employees have been suspended with pay while this audit continues. Local 4 has learned that one of those employees is a supervisor.
MDOC says the audit will take several months to complete.