Review finds ex-convict linked to Wash. killings faced two more years in prison

By David Abel, Globe Staff

A disciplinary committee at the state Department of Correction had recommended holding Daniel T. Tavares Jr. for an additional two years, but a bureaucratic foul-up allowed the fugitive killer to leave prison early, department administrators said today.

Had prison officials processed the committee’s finding in the allotted 60 days required by state regulations, Tavares would have still been in prison in November, when he allegedly killed Brian and Beverly Mauck in Graham, Wash., said Harold Clarke, commissioner of the correction department.

“We were not quick; we were slow to act,” Clarke said by phone today. “We are very disappointed about the situation with Tavares, but we’re confident that we can turn this around.”

He said the department has asked the Criminal Justice Institute, a Connecticut consulting firm, to review its disciplinary system and what went wrong with the Tavares case.

Clarke said a review of the case found Tavares should have remained in jail for another 780 days after his release from MCI-Cedar Junction in July.

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