2 Guards Blamed in Escape of 4 Inmates at County Jail

Two guards at the Orange County Jail were blamed Monday for letting four prisoners break out of a crowded rooftop recreation area and escape down the side of the building--the third such escape in the last 5 years.

“It’s a matter of a couple of deputies not doing their jobs,” a highly placed source said.

The four inmates remained at large late Monday after cutting a hole in a fence and rappelling off the roof of the four-story building Sunday night with a makeshift rope crafted out of sheets. A fifth inmate suffered a broken leg during the escape and was back in custody, officials said.

After two similar escapes--in 1983 and 1986--security for the rooftop recreation area was beefed up.

Officials with the Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, declined Monday to discuss how the escapees could have cut through a reinforced steel fence on the roof without being noticed by the deputies who were supposed to be guarding them.

After the escape 5 years ago, a county grand jury investigation resulted in a report that the reinforced fence was so strong that another rooftop escape was “highly unlikely.”

Authorities discovered the most recent jailbreak shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday, when a Santa Ana resident reported seeing a man in an orange jail jumpsuit about a block from the jail at Flower and 6th streets.

Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Rivas said the department issued a nationwide bulletin about the escape Monday and dozens of officers were searching throughout the Southland, hoping to have the inmates in custody soon “because--as a rule--the first 48 hours is the best shot you’ve got” as recapturing escapees.

Rivas said it was too early to tell whether further security precautions in the jail recreation area would be recommended because of the escape.

“Obviously, we’re going to have to evaluate what took place,” he said. “Any time you have a breach of security, something had to go wrong.”

In the last escape 2 years ago a lone guard was overpowered on the roof, but two deputies were on duty this time, Rivas said. But he could not say what went wrong. The two guards were not identified.

“Whether they had both gone to the guard station and were conferring with someone--I don’t know,” he said. Rivas described the sheets that were tied together as being “braided like a rope and real strong.” He did not know the exact length of the makeshift rope, but estimated it was at least 45 feet.

A spokesman for the FBI, which is routinely called to help search for prisoners believed to have crossed state lines, said there has been no request for assistance from the Sheriff’s Department.

“There were some different reports last night that some of these guys were spotted, but it didn’t pan out,” Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said. “We have had teams of investigators out in the field all night.”

Olson said one man was picked up in Santa Ana and fingerprinted, but it turned out he was not one of the escapees. He added that all the escapees should be considered dangerous.

“We do not believe they were armed at the time they left the complex here, but they have had time to change clothes and obtain a weapon,” Olson said. “We definitely would consider them to be dangerous--no two ways about that.

“We don’t know where these guys have gone, but we would urge people to keep their doors locked and lights on at night, and if they see suspicious people that they are concerned about to call the local authorities.”

The Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs has complained recently that staffing cutbacks in the county’s main jail in Santa Ana have threatened security at the facility. But Robert MacLeod, the union’s general manager, said Monday that there is no evidence that improper staffing was a factor in the escape.

The rooftop area where the escape occurred has two outdoor levels, both of which have concrete floors and chain-link cages with sides about 14 feet high and fenced-in roofs. Thomas F. Maniscalco, an inmate at the jail awaiting trial in a triple murder, said the fence actually has three layers of metal reinforcement, including a wire mesh with small holes and two layers of a larger-gauge steel fencing.

On one level are a small basketball court, a volleyball court and a handball court. On the other level are tables and Ping-Pong.

Both levels are visible from a single guard station, although there are blind spots along the fence that can only be seen with mirrors, sheriff’s officials said. There is also a red line painted on the floor about 3 feet inside the fence that the prisoners are not supposed to cross.

Maniscalco said the inmates were not allowed onto the roof Monday for their normal recreation.

The Santa Ana jail is the county’s only maximum-security facility. It houses about 1,400 inmates. There were 68 inmates on the roof when the latest escape took place.

Accused rapist Eric Gonzalez was the inmate who escaped in 1983, cutting through the rooftop fence and climbing to the ground on a rope of sheets. He was arrested about 2 months later after a statewide search.

In 1986, two inmates overpowered a single security guard watching the recreation area and pried the fence apart with a metal bar. They climbed to the ground by hanging from an electric wire. Both were caught about 2 days later in Los Angeles.

And in 1968, when the jail opened, eight inmates escaped from the roof before the area was fully enclosed. The escapees climbed over the fence and slid down two lengths of garden hose that had been connected.

The inmate who suffered a broken leg Sunday night was 22-year-old Hung Ly, who fell at least three stories, officials said. Ly is being held in connection with the bloody November, 1985, slaying of two people in a popular Vietnamese restaurant in Garden Grove. He is scheduled for trial Feb. 6.

Ly and two other men allegedly entered the My Nguyen restaurant on Brookhurst Street and opened fire with pistols. Killed were Quy Ngoc Nguyen, 23, a recent engineering graduate of Cal State Long Beach, and Minh Luu, 23, who lived in Riverside County.

Still at large Monday night were:

- Murder suspect Eleazar Gonzales, 20. Considered the most dangerous of the four, Gonzales was charged with murder in the gang-related shooting death on July 25 of Juan Cedilla Picon, 20, of Santa Ana. Cedilla was standing in an alley off West McFadden Avenue when Gonzales allegedly ambushed him, Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said.

Gonzales disappeared after the shooting but was tracked to Mexicali, Mexico, before being arrested in Imperial County on Oct. 4.

- Steven Wilson, 26, a transient originally from Ontario, who was arrested by Orange police April 2 on a no-bail warrant on felony counts of robbery, kidnaping, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary. He is believed to be one of two men who took three hostages in an attempt to rob Coco’s and Reuben’s restaurants on North Tustin Avenue in Orange.

- Richard Lawrence Fluharty, 26, of Garden Grove, who was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 9 on a burglary charge. His bail was set at $25,000.

- Anthony Michael Gianetti, 35, of Long Beach, who was arrested by Huntington Beach police Aug. 1 on suspicion of robbery. His bail was set at $400,000.