Posted on 05/14/2005 11:10:45 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Genesee investigating near-escape of inmate dressed as officer
5/14/2005, 7:54 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Officials are investigating how an inmate on suicide watch slipped into a sheriff's uniform and nearly escaped from the county jail.
Thomas J. Fisher, 36, of Flint, made it as far as the kitchen in the jail's basement May 8 before a cook spotted him wearing jail-issue flip-flops, Genesee County Undersheriff James S. Gage told The Flint Journal for a story Friday.
"These guys are constantly trying to figure out ways to get out of here," Gage said. "Since the last escape in 1999, we've tried to shut down all avenues. You think you have all the holes plugged, and something like this comes up."
Fisher had been jailed on charges of check fraud, concealing stolen property, driving on a suspended license and obstructing police.
Dressed in a baggy smock designed to prevent suicide, Fisher should have been handcuffed to a bench after he was brought to the booking room Sunday morning en route to his floor, but he was left unsecured, Gage said.
He walked out of the booking area, found a uniform closet and donned the garb of a command officer, Gage said.
He got all the way to the basement before a cook spotted him, Gage said.
Aren't flip-flops part of what brought kerry down too?
Life imitates art?
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