King County Jail

King County Jail

Escapes

In 1985 Calvin Beaver, who was awaiting trial for robbery, managed to slip away from authorities and bolt down ten flights of stairs. Because he had stripped his prison jumpsuit and was dressed only in underwear, it only took officers nine minutes to spot him and return him to custody. (Houston Chronicle, 10 July 1985)

In 1989, a botched escape attempt left inmate John Wesley Hughes in hospital with a flesh wound after he was shot trying to escape from a corrections officer in the Harborview Medical Center. Hughes was being held for first and second-degree robbery, plus a possible second escape attempt and kidnapping. Hughes had initially been admitted to Harborview at 10:30pm for treatment for a hand-cut. After the cut had been treated, Hughes, without handcuffs, Hughes said he felt sick, then threw a bowl at a guard and bolted for the exit. He was chased for two blocks, during which the guard fired two warning shots. A Seattle Fire Department Medic Unit joined in the chase, and soon the Seattle PD. Eventually Hughes was caught shortly before 4:00 am, hiding beneath a pickup truck. (The Seattle Times, 6 June 1988)

A similar escape attempt occurred in November of 1996, when Delano Frazier, convicted of robbing a WestOne Bank in Burien, managed to pull a loaded, small-caliber semiautomatic pistol on two corrections officers while he was at Harboview Medical Center. Frazier had successfully unlocked his leg, handcuff, and belly-chain restraints with a key he had placed under his tongue. The gun, according to officers, suddenly "appeared" out of nowhere, and they speculate that it might have been obtained during a preplanned pickup by an accomplice of Frazier at the hospital (The Seattle Times, 2 November 1996).

Another Harborview Medical escape attempt occurred in 1991, after fully-shackled and prison-clothed inmate Maxum Lockesh bit a guard's ear and fled. Lockesh was captured later that afternoon south of downtown along Interstate 5. (Portland Oregonian, 18 December 1991)

Yet another escape involving Harborview Medical Center accord in 1996, as Scott Eugene Ridgely, who was being treated for a knee-injury at the orthopedic clinic "hobbled" away on crutches from the hospital without guards finding out. After three days of freedom, Ridgley was arrested the following Saturday. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 12 August 1996)

On July 23, 1989, three inmates broke one of the minimum-security dormitory's windows, which were assured to be "break-proof" to the jail's officials, and fled into James Street. The three men, James Justice, Timothy McHugh, and Ramon Rodriguez, were considered minor criminals, charged with property crimes of burglary and theft. (The Seattle Times, 23 July 1989)

Rodriguez was caught later that night on a corner, without resistance. The size of the window was 3 to feet wide, and about 6 feet off the ground. A passerby from the street had spotted the inmates escaping. Justice and McHugh were not found.

In January of 1991, Marvin R. Hunter escaped by changing identity bracelets with another inmate to trick staff into releasing him. His bail had been set at $250,000, after a court charged him of raping and stealing from a woman in a Kent trailer in December. He was on the run for three months before he was picked up by FBI in Las Vegas motel parking lot in April. After the escape, the King County Jail implemented a photo-identification system that would prevent such mistakes from happening again. (The Seattle Times, 7 April 1992)

Lawsuits

Prison staff and inmates issued a lawsuit against the county in 1989, following the July escape attempt by three minimum-security prisoners, alleging that the facility is both overcrowded and understaffed. However, a federal judge in Seattle said that guards were not permitted to sue because their employment and presence in the jail is voluntary, making them not legally protected from dangers on the job.

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