Escaped from Bus
OATH: COs Failed To Secure Inmate

By REUVEN BLAU

An Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings judge has recommended suspending two Correction Officers who failed to properly guard an inmate who escaped from a department bus in 2004.

Administrative Law Judge Faye Lewis ruled that Correction Officer Kevin Lynch didn't follow proper administrative procedures and CO Tatum McGovern neglected to properly search the bus before it left the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center (VCBC) in The Bronx en route to Rikers Island on Feb. 20, 2004.

Last Line of Defense

Ms. Lewis recommended that Officer Lynch be suspended for 30 days and Officer McGovern for 40 days. Ms. McGovern deserves a harsher penalty, the OATH judge concluded, "because hers was the final check-point prior to the bus leaving the confines of the VCBC and she should have been more scrupulous and meticulous in her inspection."

The inmate, Ivan Jones, who had been in jail on robbery and burglary charges, was apprehended at a friend's home in The Bronx almost a month after his escape.

According to statements from other prisoners on the bus, Mr. Jones used a key hidden on his body to unlock his one handcuffed wrist attached to another prisoner. He then hid beneath the bus's undercarriage and held on as the vehicle left the guarded premises.

Mr. Jones, 19, was spotted by four NYPD officers shortly afterwards running on Southern Boulevard and trying to hail a cab. They questioned him for about 10 minutes and released him, the OATH recommendation stated.

Missed Opportunity

The cops did not realize Mr. Jones was an escaped inmate because he was still wearing his civilian clothes. They noted that he was "filled with mud and grease."

Officer McGovern testified at the OATH hearing that once the bus entered the security section where she was stationed, she used an undercarriage mirror to check the bottom of the vehicle. She acknowledged, however, that the mirror was "scuffed up" and "dull" and admitted that she did not bend down as she walked around the bus.

After his capture, Mr. Jones claimed in a written statement to investigators that he escaped by running behind a gate and slipping under it. The department, however, submitted written statements from 11 inmates, who all said that he hid under the bus and that no officer examined the bottom of the vehicle.

The OATH judge observed that the inmates may have been referring to an earlier checkpoint. William Pearce, the officer in charge of that security section, said in a separate report that he was distracted from checking the bus by a phone call and radio transmission. Mr. Pearce has since retired.

Edited Statements?

Ms. Lewis also noted that the majority of the inmate statements were dictated by Correction Department personnel. "The manner in which the statements were taken adds another level of hearsay which magnifies the need for close scrutiny of the documents," she stated.

Ms. McGovern, the OATH recommendation concluded, actually did check the bottom of the bus. But Ms. Lewis noted the mirror was dirty and concluded she should have taken "additional measures," including bending down and looking beneath the undercarriage. "Such measures were particularly important because there were no additional inspections or security checks to be conducted after the bus left," Ms. Lewis said.

Before the bus left, Officer Lynch, who was the intake post officer at the time of the incident, counted the 19 inmates and handed their information folders to the two Transportation Officers, Samuel Feliciano and Sean Place. But only 18 inmates boarded the bus, which departed at roughly 12:30 p.m.

Despite that discrepancy, the officers drove off. Ms. Lewis said that they should have waited and "committed gross misconduct." Officer Feliciano has since retired, and departmental disciplinary charges against Mr. Place are imminent, a department spokesman said.

Horn: 'Sloppy Staff'

As for Officer Lynch, Ms. Lewis ruled that he helped look for Mr. Jones and that he took his chart off the bus to assist in that search. She also concluded that he never authorized the bus to leave.

"However, this does not resolve the issue of whether respondent Lynch was negligent or otherwise violated department rules by accepting inmate Jones's folder from Officer Feliciano when he realized that there was a discrepancy in the count, without notifying a supervisor of the discrepancy," she said.

The department was seeking to fire Officers Lynch and McGovern, but Ms. Lewis found that to be "unduly harsh, in light of the officers' exemplary prior records and of penalties imposed in previous cases."

Shortly after the 2004 incident, the department suspended six officers (including Mr. Lynch and Ms. McGovern) and a Captain without pay for 15 days. Testifying before a jail oversight board, Correction Commissioner Martin F. Horn said then that the escape "was a matter of staff being sloppy."

Mr. Horn told the board that the department now requires both wrists of each inmate to be handcuffed.

The OATH recommendation was forwarded to Mr. Horn, who has complete authority in personnel disciplinary matters.