Ex-Football Player Tries to Outrun Sheriff’s Deputies

A former Canyon High School football player, who once relied on speed to shut down fleet-footed receivers, had to put his skills to new uses Tuesday when he tried to escape from Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, authorities said.

Due to go back to jail after being held to answer on charges that he and his cousin robbed a Citibank branch in Canyon Country last December, defendant Eddie Pugh escaped from the secured bus loading area attached to Newhall Municipal Court at 4:50 p.m., according to Deputy Angie Prewett.

Deputies mounted an all-out search for the one-time football player. But in the end they found him trying to leave a nearby condominium complex in blue shorts, a polo shirt and loafers, not more than 500 yards from where he escaped, sheriff’s officials said.

“He was wearing a complete change of clothes,” Prewett said. “He was hoping to blend in as a resident leaving the condominium but a deputy immediately recognized him from a booking photo and took him back into custody.”

Pugh, who was due to be arraigned Tuesday, now faces escape charges in addition to a charge of felony armed robbery in connection with the Dec. 2 bank heist.

If convicted, Pugh now faces his second and third strikes and, by law, 25-years-to-life in state prison, according to Sheriff’s Det. Greg Laval.

Pugh had a 1996 conviction for attempted carjacking, stemming from the holdup of a pizza deliveryman in Van Nuys in 1995. He also was arrested by Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies for possession of a sawed-off shotgun, Laval said.

Most recently, Laval said, Pugh was accused of committing the bank robbery in Canyon Country with help from his 19-year-old cousin Georgina Greene.

Nobody was hurt in the holdup in which the assailants fled in a 1989 Nissan Maxima, then abandoned it in a nearby parking lot.

When witnesses told deputies they had seen a U-Haul truck flee the scene, deputies tracked the vehicle to Soledad Canyon Road near Shangri-La Drive.

Pugh will be arraigned Thursday on the new charges, sheriff’s officials said.

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Times Community News correspondent Paul Anderson contributed to this story.