NEW ORLEANS — BATON ROUGE -- The worst day of Chad Becnel's life was more than 30 years ago, when Brian Matherne, a trusted coach and teacher from Sacred Heart of Jesus Elementary School in Norco, sexually abused him.
Becnel said the second worst day of his life was this past February, when he learned Matherne had been mistakenly released from prison, seven-and-a-half years too early.
But Tuesday was a much better day for Becnel. That’s when Gov. John Bel Edwards met with the Becnel family face-to-face at the State Capitol and apologized to them. He also acknowledged that the State Department of Corrections had made a mistake.
“I apologized to them because it was obviously a mistake that they released Mr. Matherne early,” Edwards said. “It shouldn't have happened.”
Edwards also signed a new law that he and the Becnels hope will improve the state’s process of notifying victims of violent or sexual crimes before their attackers are released from prison.
The Becnels reached out to WWL-TV shortly after they learned Matherne was out of prison and living in Tangipahoa Parish.
Court records from February 2000 showed Matherne was sentenced to 29 years, 11 months and 29 days – one day shy of 30 years – expressly so he would not be eligible for parole or early release for good behavior, or “good time,” but DOC said Matherne had been granted a “good-time release.”
WWL-TV questioned the state DOC about Matherne’s release on Feb. 28. He was re-arrested March 2 and sent back to Rayburn Correctional Center until 2029. The DOC issued a statement calling Matherne’s Feb. 1 release a “potential release in error” and blaming it on the rarity of the judge’s denial of good time “under a nuanced law in existence at the time the offense was committed.”
State Rep. Greg Miller, R-Norco, quickly moved to sponsor a bill to require DOC to notify prosecutors and victims at least 60 days prior to the release of inmates convicted of crimes of sex or violence, using email and text messages as well as certified mail. It's called the Becnel Survivors Notification Act.
Previously, victims were supposed to be notified 10 days in advance by certified mail.
“It gives time for people to prepare, but it also gives a whole bunch of sets of eyes to make sure this (release) is appropriate,” Miller said.
Matherne's inappropriate release was far from an isolated error.
Louisiana Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc said in 2017 the DOC has staff manually track inmate release dates, leading to more than 100 early or late releases every year.
“It's against the law to release them early and it is also against the law to release them late, and they do the best they can, but quite frankly in this case it wasn't good enough,” Edwards said.
The governor said LeBlanc is still working on improving the DOC computer system to better track inmate release dates. Becnel said he didn’t expect the apology from Edwards but appreciated that he took responsibility for DOC’s mistake.
DOC spokesman Ken Pastorick said no department employees were disciplined for Matherne’s mistaken release. Becnel said he still wants an apology from DOC.