Local News in Brief : High Bail for Alleged Escape Accomplice
A Los Angeles woman charged with helping “technobandit” Werner Bruchhausen in a foiled escape from a Florida prison was ordered Tuesday to post $50,000 bail before she can be freed.
Margaret Winget, 41, appeared briefly in federal court in Los Angeles before U.S. Magistrate Venetta Tassopulos, who said Winget deserved a high bail because of the nature of the charges against her.
“After providing this type of assistance to someone else . . . I think she would want to do the same for herself,” Tassopulos said.
Prosecutor Adam Schiff told Tassopulos that Winget, a medical office assistant, “was the arranger” of Bruchhausen’s attempt to escape by helicopter Sunday from the Federal Correctional Institute at Tallahassee. He said Winget had relayed telephone messages from Bruchhausen to others to assist in the escape plans.
Bruchhausen, 45, is serving a 15-year sentence for selling high-tech secrets to the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries.
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