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Taisacan pleads not guilty to prison escape
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Posted on May 02 2000
Convicted felon Kurt M. Taisacan, 22, pled not guilty before the Superior Court to charges in connection with the Easter Sunday escape.
Superior Court Associate Judge Timothy H. Bellas yesterday deferred the arraignment of two other escapees, Jesse James B. Camacho, 20, and Luis Deleon Guerrero Camacho, 51, for lack of counsel to represent them. It has been rescheduled for May 8, 2000.
This developed as preliminary investigation in the incident showed that the escapees tinkered with the padlock in the East gate of the main corrections facility days before they escaped.
Unfortunately, the three prison guards — one senior officer and two rookies — stationed at Cell A at that time did not even bother to check the padlock. The Department of Public Safety’s Internal Affairs is still investigating the April 23, 2000 incident.
Mr. Deleon Guerrero Camacho was apprehended hours after the escape. Mr. Camacho and Mr. Taisacan surrendered at around 11:45 p.m. last Tuesday for fear of their lives after they were tagged as armed and dangerous.
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio wants DPS to provide him with the full report on the escape as he pledged to hire more police officers to beef up the current DPS force in a move to ease security worries in the community.
Mr. Tenorio met with Public Safety Commissioner Charles W. Ingram and other Division of Corrections officials to discuss ways on how to prevent such incident in the future.
The DPS chief vowed to press charges against the corrections officers who would be found guilty of negligence by the committee that is currently investigating the escape.
