Memos Say O.C. Sheriff Ignored Tip on Escapes

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department was warned that robbery suspect Michael Taylor was planning a jail escape almost 2 months before he and four other inmates broke out last November but never acted on the tip, according to internal memos made available Friday.

The memos were revealed by the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs as evidence that Sheriff’s Department administrators--not a deputy who was fired and four officers who were disciplined this week--were to blame for the Nov. 20 escape. The memos showed that despite the warning, Taylor was not placed under maximum security and no special precautions were taken.

A Sept. 29 internal memo to Sheriff’s Capt. Albert R. Massucci, who is in charge of the men’s jail, said Taylor had asked an outside contact to hide some clothing near the jail that he could use in the escape. The contact, however, was an informant for Huntington Beach police, who alerted a Sheriff’s Department lieutenant. The lieutenant passed on the information in the memo to Massucci.

Rappelled From Roof

Taylor and the other four inmates escaped the night of Nov. 20 by rappelling with bed sheets from the four-story roof of the men’s jail in Santa Ana. Taylor is the only remaining fugitive from the escape. Law enforcement officials say he was responsible for a $450,000 armed jewelry robbery near Chicago 2 weeks ago.

In a second Sheriff’s Department memo written to Massucci after the escape, the ranking jail officer on duty the night of the breakout--Lt. Jerry Kreitz--said he learned of the warning of a possible escape only after the breakout.

“I am surprised to find him still to be a (medium security) inmate and not listed as an escape risk on the court list or on his (housing) card,” Kreitz wrote in his Nov. 27 memo describing the events on the day of the escape.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said the department would not comment on the disclosure that jail authorities had warning of the escape plans.

Instead, in a prepared statement referring to disciplinary action taken against the five employees to date, Olson said, “The department feels this is the most appropriate discipline for the situation.”

“The bottom line to this whole thing is that the escapes never would have occurred if the deputies had been doing their jobs,” Olson said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Olson also said the deputies failed to follow procedures by not conducting a search of the inmates and not “keeping them under constant observation on the recreation roof.”

But Robert MacLeod, general manager of the deputies’ union, said, “My contention is that if there is blame to be laid it should be at the foot of the department. The department was just looking for somebody to blame other than themselves.”

Deputy Michael Elliott, 30, who was fired Thursday, claims that he conducted the search. Elliott also said it was not possible to patrol the recreation area with its 68 inmates because he was alone in the guard station for much of the time, MacLeod said.

Deputy Miscounted

MacLeod said Elliott acknowledged that he miscounted the inmates as they left the rooftop, thus delaying discovery of the escape. MacLeod said Elliott told sheriff’s officials in a recent disciplinary hearing that he would accept a 30-day unpaid suspension for that error.

Elliott, a 2-year veteran, also is one of four Orange County deputies who were investigated last year in connection with a bloody brawl at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go nightclub in Hollywood. Four employees of the nightclub were injured in the fight on Oct. 2, 1988, one with four broken ribs.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department decided not to file criminal charges in the case, but an internal Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigation remains open, MacLeod said. However, the brawl was not mentioned in Elliott’s termination notice, he said.

Elliott also was one of 14 deputies named in a brutality suit against the Sheriff’s Department filed by attorney Dick Herman, a Newport Beach attorney who has been active in litigation to improve jail conditions.

Deputy Daniel Walsh, 24, who also was assigned to rooftop duty on the night of the escape, was given a 30-day unpaid suspension by the department on Friday, MacLeod said.

Walsh’s father, Clyde Walsh, is a sergeant in the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, MacLeod said.

MacLeod said both deputies are appealing the disciplinary actions to an outside arbitrator. Both have been on paid leave since the escape.

Olson described the actions taken against the three other sworn jail personnel who were disciplined in connection with the escape. One was suspended for 10 days and another for 2 days. The third was given a letter of reprimand.

Olson said a sixth sworn officer resigned before disciplinary action was taken, and a seventh employee’s case is pending. He would not identify them.

In other evidence to support its charge that administrators are responsible for the escape, the deputies’ union also revealed numerous other internal Sheriff’s Department memos complaining that the escape route used had become a “traditional” one and that known security flaws had been left unattended for years.

The November escape was the third successful breakout from the roof in the last 10 years.

In a letter to Undersheriff Raul Ramos on Nov. 22, Capt. Massucci wrote that his staff had checked construction records back to 1978 and did not find any requests to “redesign the roof.”

Massucci’s letter also quoted Ron Stewart, a county welder who worked on the jail for 9 years, as warning county officials “numerous times” that the “fencing currently in use is not satisfactory . . . for this type of security.”

In the escape, the inmates pried the chain-link fence apart with a steel towel bar they had torn from the wall.

Suffered Broken Leg

One of the escapees suffered a broken leg in a fall from the roof during the November breakout and was recaptured immediately. Another turned himself in on Thanksgiving, and two more were caught in Denver about 2 weeks after the escape.

Immediately after the escape, authorities concluded that Taylor was the mastermind. He was facing more than 40 years in prison if convicted of seven armed robberies of jewelry stores that police have attributed to him in Orange County. Police in Los Angeles County say he is believed responsible for at least 10 more in that area.

The memos were included in more than 500 pages of testimony and more than 24 hours of tape recordings compiled during the department’s internal investigation. The material was turned over to the deputies’ union.

MacLeod said the testimony also includes numerous comments from other deputies and sheriff’s sergeants complaining that it is routine procedure for jail personnel to bend the department’s written rules. He said that many of the rules are inconsistent and that there is not enough time or staff to operate the jail by the book.

As an example, MacLeod said the department’s Policies and Procedures Manual says that no more than six maximum-security inmates can be on the roof for recreation at one time. But the posted rules in the guard station say the limit is nine maximum-security inmates and the deputies’ training manual says three, according to MacLeod.

Based on these inconsistencies and the information regarding the warning about Taylor’s plans to escape, MacLeod vowed: “I’m telling you today, these guys will suffer no penalties. Elliott will get his job back and Walsh will not be suspended.”