Lars Larson: Escapee Alert Highlights Theft Over Homicide, Rape?

Oregon Department of Corrections should tell us when escapees are dangerous

Thursday, March 29, 2007 by Lars Larson

So why can’t the people who run Oregon’s prisons give us a little bit of warning when they let a really bad one out the door?

There was a really bad guy who escaped from an Oregon prison over the weekend. Fortunately, he’s back in custody.

He’s a man who’s got a history of robbery. That’s what he was in for this most recent time. And the Oregon Department of Corrections sent out a little press release telling the public that he was in for 15 months for Robbery 3. Sounded kind of minor. Not that big a deal.

What the Department of Corrections didn’t bother to tell us was that the guy who was let loose was a stone, cold killer. That about 30 years ago this guy forced another guy at knife point to perform a sexual act on him and when he was done with that degradation he killed the man with a claw hammer.

And then about 17 years ago he raped a woman. And now more recently he’s been involved in robbery. How about telling us all the bad stuff when you let one of these guys escape? And why are they escaping anyway?

— This NW Reports was presented by Lars Larson.