Two Who Fled Orange County Jail Captured

Exactly 2 weeks after their daring escape, two fugitives from Orange County Jail were captured without incident Sunday by agents of the FBI in a Denver suburb, authorities said.

Arrested at a large apartment complex in Westminster, Colo., were Richard Fluharty, 26, who faces burglary charges in Orange County, and Steven Wilson, 26, who is charged with robbery, kidnaping, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary.

Of the five inmates who fled through a hole cut in a chain-link fence on the jail’s rooftop recreation area, only robbery suspect Anthony Gianetti, 35, remained at large Sunday night.

FBI Combed Denver Area

The FBI, working on a tip developed by federal agents in Los Angeles, had combed the Denver area for 2 days looking for the escapees and the red, 1986 Ford Escort GT with South Dakota license plates that they had stolen in Santa Ana, said the agent in charge of Colorado operations, Bob Pence.

The car was spotted in traffic Saturday, but agents were unable to catch up to it at that time, Pence said.

“But it did confirm to us that they were indeed in the area,” Pence said.

About 1 p.m. Sunday, the auto was found parked near an apartment complex on Melody Street near Interstate 25 and 120th Avenue. Agents staked it out, Pence said.

Wilson was arrested about 3 p.m. as he walked from the apartment complex, Pence said. After showing photos of Fluharty to people in the area, FBI agents narrowed their search to one apartment, in which the fugitive was found with one of two women the escapees had met in a bar, Pence said.

“We just knocked on the door, and they thought it was somebody else,” Pence said.

Fluharty was arrested, but the woman was not arrested.

‘Strictly a Pick-Up’

“This (woman) was strictly a pick-up,” Pence said. “The women were probably as surprised as anyone.”

Wilson and Fluharty will be taken before a federal magistrate in Denver on Monday, and extradition proceedings will begin, Pence said.

Questioning of Wilson and Fluharty continued into the night Sunday.

“We’re in the process of trying to account for any unsolved recent stick-ups in the area, either banks or commercial business establishments,” Pence said.

The fugitives had apparently arrived in Denver “a few days ago” and met the two women in a lounge, Pence said. When they were arrested, both Wilson and Fluharty were dressed in casual street clothes but had only a small amount of money, he said.

Pence said information gathered by the FBI in Colorado related only to the two captured escapees, not to Gianetti, the fugitive still at large.

About a dozen FBI agents were involved in the search, aided Saturday by local police. On Sunday the agents were basically on their own when they spotted the stolen car and arrested the men, Pence said.

Cut a Hole in Fence

The inmates escaped from the jail Nov. 19 by cutting a hole in security fencing and lowering themselves with a sheet from the 4-story building.

A fifth inmate--Ly Hung, a 22-year-old from Irvine held in the slayings of two people in a Vietnamese restaurant--suffered a broken leg during the escape and was quickly recaptured.

Another escapee, Eleazar Gonzales of Santa Ana, jailed in a gang-related slaying, walked into a police station with his family on Thanksgiving night and surrendered.

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

Shortly after the escape, three of the men apparently talked a local resident into giving them a ride to Garden Grove. Gonzales, 20, separated from the other three at that point.

Lt. Richard J. Olson, spokesman for the county Sheriff’s Department, said the three inmates had approached the man at 8:15 p.m. as he was working on his car at 2949 N. Bristol St. in Santa Ana. The men, who had shed their jail jump suits, told the man that one of them had suffered a heart attack and needed to be rushed to the hospital.

Once inside the car, the men directed the driver and eventually left him on a curb in Garden Grove, Olson said.

The victim later identified the escapees from photos.

It was the third time in 5 years that prisoners had escaped from the jail rooftop by cutting through the fence and rappelling down the side.

Only Maximum Security Jail

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

When the inmates broke out, one of the two deputies guarding the prisoners had been called away from his post, county officials said.

Two deputies were temporarily relieved of their duties with pay, pending the outcome of an investigation, which is standard procedure. The deputies’ names have not been released by the Sheriff’s Department.

Union officials complained Nov. 22 that deputies’ ability to guard the inmates have been hampered by court mandates and staffing shortages.

With two deputies on the roof, one is stationed in a guardhouse, while the other patrols the area. But when there is only one deputy, he is confined to the guardhouse, allowing the inmates to take advantage of the guard’s limited visibility, sources said.