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Jail escapee caught blocks away
Police dog sniffs him out after he dashes out of municipal court
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — Donald Fugate won't be able to run today because he'll be wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, police said.
Fugate, 25, dashed out of Middletown Municipal Court, Monday, May 12, sparking a search by more than 20 officers.
Butler County Sheriff's deputies and Middletown police officers use canines to track a prisoner who escaped from the Middletown Municipal Court to the former Sorg Paper Co. building Monday, May 12, in Middletown.Fugate was set to appear for an arraignment on charges of falsification and abusing heroin when he bolted from the holding room at about 11 a.m. during a court recess, said Louis Rossi, clerk of courts.
Officers from Middletown Division of Police and the Butler County Sheriff's Office tracked him blocks away to the area around the former Sorg paper factory. A police dog sniffed him out less than hour after he fled; he was found hiding in a small hole amid 40-foot-tall paper bundles, said Middletown police Maj. Mark Hoffman.
"We knew that he was barefoot so we didn't think that he'd go too far," Hoffman said.
The sheriff's helicopter also assisted in the search.
Unlike high-level felony offenders, prisoners accused of misdemeanors are not typically shackled for court, Rossi said.
Fugate, who already has a lengthy criminal history including past convictions for drug abuse, ethnic intimidation and driving while intoxicated, is charged with escape for his actions Monday, according to the Middletown City Jail, and is set to be in court today to face those charges.
There were 22 prisoners waiting in the holding area when Fugate ran past the court liaison officer through an unlocked door and into the courtroom, where a handful of people were seated waiting for court to resume, Rossi said. He then fled through the courtroom into the city building's lobby and out the front doors.
The doors between the holding area and the court room are normally kept locked but have to be opened occasionally for prisoners meeting with their attorneys.
"It's not a facility problem it's a human problem," Rossi said. "Somehow he got by the court liaison officer."
This isn't the first time a prisoner has escaped from the court in the last year, but they normally don't make it far, said Middletown police Lt. Rodney Muterspaw.
Police are still looking into how Fugate managed to get free Monday, Muterspaw said.
"It's going to take some time to find out what went on." Muterspaw said.
