Inmates Able to Flee After Lone Deputy Left Station

The lone deputy watching two inmates on the Orange County Jail roof Sunday was supposed to stay inside his locked guard station, but when he stepped outside, the prisoners overpowered him and escaped, Undersheriff Raul Ramos said Wednesday.

“That’s how they got their hands on him,” Ramos said.

Earlier this week, Assistant Sheriff Jerry R. Kranz said a second deputy assigned to guard the inmates during a mandatory recreation period on the jail roof had left his post to respond to a minor emergency somewhere else in the jail.

It was while that deputy was gone that the remaining deputy stepped out of the guard station, which is in telephone communication with the jail’s “central control,” Ramos said.

Key Must Be Used

“The officers are supposed to be in an enclosed station with telephone communication with central control,” Ramos said. The guard station can be opened only by the officer inside or with a key from the outside, he said.

Nevertheless, Ramos, second in command in the sheriff’s office, stressed Wednesday that “we don’t want to place blame or say they did anything wrong or didn’t do anything wrong until we have all the facts.”

Ramos said Sheriff Brad Gates “wants to make sure we have all the facts before we start making any judgment calls.”

“We’re very fortunate that the officers were not hurt,” Ramos said, adding that department procedures and the deputies’ acts are being reviewed. In the meantime, Ramos said, the names of both deputies are being withheld.

Meanwhile, beefed up Sheriff’s Department patrols continued their search for murder suspect Robert Joseph Clark, 23, of Palm Springs and convicted killer Ivan Von Staich, 29, of Lake Elsinore, who escaped about 6:30 a.m. Sunday.

Asked to Use Restroom

According to sheriff’s spokesmen, the inmates had asked the deputy who remained behind in the locked guard station for permission to use the restroom. As the deputy moved to open the door the two men overpowered him and cuffed him with his own handcuffs, Lt. Richard Olson said.

Using a metal bar and an electrical cord obtained from a maintenance locker on the roof, the inmates pried up the security screening, then rappelled about 80 feet to a one-story-high roof below, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Ramos said the security screen pried by the escapees has been repaired but that sheriff’s officials have not determined yet whether the screen needs to be reinforced.

“Normally the inmates are under constant evaluation by someone while they are up there,” Ramos said. “They are not allowed to go within three feet of the (perimeter) fence when they are normally being observed. Obviously (the fence) wasn’t constructed with the idea of them being unobserved.”

One of the few leads sheriff’s investigators have publicly acknowledged apparently was not related to the escape, a sheriff’s spokesman said Wednesday.

No Link to Car

There is no apparent connection between a stolen car that was recovered in Los Angeles on Tuesday and the escapees, Sheriff’s Lt. Bob Rivas said.

“We did lift some fingerprints (from the car), but they don’t belong to the suspects,” Rivas said.

Authorities originally believed that the car, a 1972 Toyota Corolla, may have been stolen by the inmates. It was reported stolen from a nearby garage at about the time Clark and Staich, wearing their orange jail jump suits, were seen running north from the jail along Flower Street. (One of the suits was found later near Flower and 15th Street.)

A preliminary comparison of the fingerprints lifted from the car showed that they did not match the prints of the escapees, Rivas said. However, further checks will be conducted, he said.

Ramos said the manhunt is “still concentrating on Orange County and surrounding counties” and agencies throughout the state have been alerted.