Bail Hearing Delayed for IRA Member Held in S.D.

A man identified as a member of the Irish Republican Army who escaped from a Northern Ireland prison in 1983 will continue to be held without bail at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.

A hearing to determine if bail should be set for Kevin Barry Artt was delayed until Thursday.

Artt, 33, was arrested by federal officials Wednesday at his houseboat moored on Mission Bay. On the same day, he was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of filing false statements while applying for a U.S. passport.

A hearing to determine if he should be sent to San Francisco to face charges will be held June 16.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert J. Lauchlan Jr. told U.S. Magistrate Roger C. McKee that Artt should be held without bail because he is a danger to the community and a flight risk.

Lauchlan said Artt was trying to obtain a passport by using the identity of a dead person, Kevin Thomas Keohane. Artt previously had been granted a California driver’s license and a state permit to sell automobiles.

Artt was illegally in possession of a switchblade knife when he was taken into custody, Lauchlan said.

Artt faces as many as five years in custody if convicted of filing false statements, but federal officials would give “consideration to a deportation or an extradition proceeding,” the prosecutor said.

Officials say Artt is one of 38 IRA members who escaped from Maze prison near Belfast in September, 1983. He had been convicted of murdering a Northern Ireland prison official in 1977 and was serving a life sentence.