Released prisoner refused to leave

OAK PARK HEIGHTS, Minn., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Officials with the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Oak Park Heights said they had to call the police after a released prisoner refused to leave prison grounds.

The officials said an officer from the Oak Park Heights Police Department was called to the facility Nov. 13 after King Phillip Veiga, 23, refused to leave the prison, saying he wasn't due to be released until May 2009, the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press reported Thursday.

The police report said Veiga "would not sign any paperwork stating his release date was today because he felt he would be rearrested and brought back to prison."

Veiga was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for a fifth-degree controlled substance charge of possession of marijuana. He was placed on supervised release July 15 after spending 140 days in jail, but he was brought back to prison Aug. 8 after he violated the terms of his release, said Shari Burt, communications director for the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Burt said Veiga was eventually convinced to leave the prison.

"He was released on his release date and is no longer under supervision," she said. "He was reluctant to leave prison because he didn't think all of his time was served, but it was. His sentence is completely discharged."