Suspect in Juvenile Hall Mass Escape Is Arrested

A teen-age escapee suspected of aiding six violent-crime suspects to flee the county’s Central Juvenile Hall last week by smashing a car through a utility gate has been arrested, authorities said Tuesday.

Los Angeles Police Detective Lt. Robert Barker said Barry Mortis, 17, was arrested on a fugitive warrant Sunday at a house near 61st Street and Vernon Avenue. Mortis refused to come out of the house at first, but eventually surrendered without incident, Barker said.

Mortis, who fled Juvenile Hall in March, was linked to one of two cars used in the jailbreak and knew one of escapees who raced to freedom through the smashed gate, police said.

After his arrest, Mortis was returned to Juvenile Hall to face an escape charge, along with allegations of kidnaping, attempted rape and kidnaping for purposes of robbery, the charges on which he was originally detained.

Concern over the escape--all six youths are still at large--brought a call by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday for a study of the feasibility of housing violent youthful offenders in maximum-security facilities, instead of in Juvenile Hall.

“I am very concerned that minors declared unfit and charged with murder and other violent offenses would be detained in Juvenile Hall to begin with,” said Supervisor Ed Edelman, who called for an investigation of last week’s escape.

“The sophisticated and probable preplanning involved in the escape itself indicates a level of criminal maturity that juvenile halls are just not equipped to deal with,” the supervisor said.

Edelman, in whose district Central Juvenile Hall is located, noted that four of the fugitives had been detained on murder charges and had been declared “unfit” for handling by the Juvenile Court, but had been ordered detained in Juvenile Hall.

Under questioning by Edelman, Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf said he has asked for a review of every file of violent offenders in county juvenile facilities. According to probation officers, 95 offenders charged with murder are now housed in the system.

“If they are unfit to stand trial as a juvenile, why do we continue to have them at Juvenile Hall?” Edelman asked.

“It doesn’t make sense to me either. It is because we are ordered by the court,” Nidorf said.

Edelman said, “We can’t tolerate any more escapes similar to this.”

In Friday’s breakout, a 1981 Chevrolet station wagon that had been stolen in the Mid-Wilshire area was used to crash through a gate on the north side of Juvenile Hall on Eastlake Avenue in Lincoln Heights.

Police said the six fled in a second car.