Helicopter Escapee Was Abused in Prison, Lawyer Says

Before her lover flew her out of a federal prison in a stolen helicopter, Samantha Dorinda Lopez was struck several times by guards, handed a pack of razor blades and told to kill herself, and warned by the warden that “accidents happen,” her lawyer said Tuesday.

Defending Lopez against escape charges, Assistant Federal Public Defender Geoffrey Hansen said she was the target of threats and assaults after speaking out as a representative of the inmate council about conditions at the Federal Correctional Institution in Pleasanton and discrepancies in inmate funds.

Portraying the prison administration as corrupt and vindictive, the defense presented testimony from three inmates who said they were subjected to retaliation after agreeing to testify. Two had their rooms searched and legally related materials taken, and were ordered to take drug tests, and a third was transferred to a prison on the East Coast.

A former Protestant chaplain at the prison, the Rev. Sally Bystroff, also testified that an obviously terrified Lopez told her in March, 1986, that she had just been threatened by the warden. She said she became convinced that Lopez was serious.

Bystroff, who told reporters later that she resigned as chaplain last month in anger at the prison administration, said Lopez told her that an inmate fund that was supposed to contain $7,000 or $8,000 had been reduced to $300.

The threats, and the knowledge that going through official channels was useless, prompted Lopez and Ronald McIntosh to plan their escape last November, Hansen said.

McIntosh, who had walked away during a transfer from the prison a week earlier, stole a helicopter, landed in the prison yard and flew off with Lopez, a convicted bank robber whom he had met in the prison.

The pair were arrested 10 days later in a Sacramento-area shopping mall where they were picking up wedding rings.

At the time, Hansen said, they had already made several calls to a local attorney in an unsuccessful attempt to arrange a surrender.

Earlier Tuesday, the pilot of the helicopter allegedly hijacked by McIntosh testified for the prosecution that McIntosh pulled a gun on him and forced him to land and turn over the controls of the aircraft.