Security Studied as Youth Escapes Custody 2nd Time

A day after the second escape in as many months by the same youth, authorities at County Juvenile Hall on Thursday launched a review of security at the detention facility.

“We are doing an internal review to look at the circumstances of the escape,” said Rod Speer, a spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department, which helps administer Juvenile Hall.

Ryan Neale, 18, of Los Alamitos and Baldomero Diaz, 17, broke out at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday by scaling one 16-foot chain link fence and crawling under a loose section of another, said Mack Jenkins, the facility’s assistant director. Diaz was awaiting sentencing for attempted murder.

They were last seen wearing the facility-issued dark blue T-shirts and sweat pants as they ran from the facility toward the Santa Ana River Trail, Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez said.

Neale, who was waiting a transfer to a California Youth Authority center in Norwalk, had escaped Aug. 17, but was quickly recaptured, Speer said.

“He has been in Juvenile Hall repeatedly for numerous sentences over a period of years,” Speer said, but he declined to say why.

Neale is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, weighing about 160 pounds with short-cropped red hair and hazel eyes. Diaz is described as 5-foot-9, about 150 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

Speer said that the department has alerted sheriff’s officers and other police agencies in the county. Authorities are especially anxious to find Diaz, who is considered more dangerous.

Speer encouraged anyone with possible information leading to the recapture of the fugitives to call the Sheriff’s Department at (714) 647-7000 or a local police agency.