Extradition Bid for Escapees Begins : Pair Are Also Suspects in 8 Denver-Area Bank Robberies

Two fugitives from the Orange County Jail, suspected of robbing eight banks in and around Denver before being caught Sunday, were turned over to Colorado officials Monday to begin extradition proceedings.

Richard Fluharty and Steven Wilson, both 26, were being held without bail in the Denver County Jail.

But Robert Pence, agent in charge of the FBI’s Denver office, said he expected the two fugitives to be returned to California before any additional charges are filed against them.

“I would expect they would be returned rather quickly--in a few days,” Pence said. And if any federal or Colorado charges are eventually filed against the two, they will face trial in Colorado only after they are prosecuted first in Santa Ana for escaping from the Orange County Jail, Pence said.

Monday afternoon three Orange County sheriff’s deputies boarded a plane bound for Colorado to interview Fluharty and Wilson and monitor the extradition proceedings, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Richard Olson said.

May Need Governor’s Help

If the escapees waive extradition and there are no local charges, “you get them back within 10 working days,” Olson said. But if the two escapees contest their extradition, Orange County may have to ask Gov. George Deukmejian to ask Colorado’s governor to extradite them, a cumbersome legal procedure that, according to Olson, could take 60 to 90 days.

Fluharty, of Garden Grove, was arrested Nov. 9 by Orange County sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of burglary and was being held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Wilson, a transient from Ontario, was arrested April 2 by police in Orange and was being held without bail on charges of robbery, kidnaping and assault with a deadly weapon.

Along with two other inmates, the two escaped from the Orange County Jail on Nov. 19 by cutting a hole in a chain-link fence on the jail’s rooftop recreation area, then lowering themselves with sheets from the four-story building.

One of the four escapees walked into the Santa Ana police station on Thanksgiving night and surrendered. A fifth inmate broke his leg in attempting the escape and was quickly recaptured.

One Still Free

One inmate, Anthony Michael Gianetti, 35, who had been held on suspicion of robbery, was still being sought Monday.

Working on a tip from federal agents in Los Angeles, a dozen FBI agents in Denver spent last weekend combing the area for Wilson, Fluharty and the red Ford Escort with South Dakota license plates that they allegedly stole in Santa Ana shortly after they escaped.

Early Sunday afternoon, FBI agents found the stolen car parked near an apartment complex on Melody Street in the Denver suburb of Westminster. Two hours later, they arrested Wilson when he walked out of the complex. And after talking to neighbors, they found Fluharty inside one of the apartments and arrested him too.

Denver-area police confirmed that Wilson and Fluharty are considered suspects in eight recent bank robberies, but declined to reveal details, other than that six occurred in Denver, one in nearby Westminster and one in North Glen.

In what was described as a brief procedural hearing Monday morning, U.S. Magistrate Hilbert Schauer ordered federal charges of unlawful interstate flight against Wilson and Fluharty dropped and told U.S. marshals to turn them over to the fugitive detail of the Denver police.