Another Juvenile Escapes Custody

A 16-year-old being held at Central Juvenile Hall in an armed robbery case escaped from custody Tuesday while attending a medical appointment at a nearby clinic, making him the fourth teenager to flee the Lincoln Heights facility in a week, police said.

Steven Frazier escaped from a guard at a clinic associated with the County-USC Medical Center, within walking distance from the juvenile hall on Eastlake Avenue where he was held, police said.

“While inside getting medical treatment he escaped from the facility,” said Officer Al Garcia of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division.

The boy escaped about 11:30 a.m. while accompanied by a Probation Department staff member, said Ken Kondo, spokesman for the county Probation Department, which operates the juvenile halls.

Kondo said he could not disclose further details about the teenager.

The escape comes less than a week after three teenagers, two of them convicted murderers, used a handgun to overpower guards and escape from the Eastlake Avenue facility using a small ladder and bedsheets to climb over a 20-foot wall. The three remain at large.

The latest escape came as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion by Mike Antonovich calling for the Probation Department to produce a plan that would prevent escapes.

Frazier was being held in an armed robbery case, police said. Other law enforcement sources said he was convicted and was to be transported soon to the California Youth Authority.

Probation officials said security at the facility has been stepped up since the July 31 escape of the three teenagers. All staff workers must now pass through metal detectors when entering work to detect any smuggled weapons.

Jose Argueta, 17, a gang leader convicted of murdering a rival, used a .45-caliber handgun to lead the escape from the facility’s special housing unit.

Argueta asked a guard to unlocked his door to allow him to get a drink of water. Then he showed his gun and took three guards hostage.

He forced one of the guards to open the rooms of convicted murderer Marvin Sandoval, 17, and convicted carjacker Fernando Nupiri, 18. They locked the guard in a utility room inside the unit and used a 5-foot ladder and bedsheets tied like ropes to climb over the wall, which is topped with razor wire.