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Police catch inmate in Grants Pass Traffic infraction brings arrest By Mark Freeman GRANTS PASS � A prison inmate who escaped authorities while on firefighting duty near TouVelle State Park in August � just before he was indicted on 11 other felony charges � couldn�t pull off another disappearing act from police during a traffic stop Friday in Grants Pass. Anthony Edward Gandy was arrested on felony escape and several other charges after he was recognized as a wanted fugitive while riding in a car that ran a red light. Gandy was arraigned Monday in a Josephine County court on a charge of second-degree escape as well as 11 other felonies for alleged crimes that occurred before his imprisonment, authorities said. However, at the time Gandy was added to an inmate firefighting crew in August while at the South Fork Prison Annex in Tillamook County, state corrections officials did not know that he was a suspect in a series of other robberies, burglaries and thefts in Josephine County, said Perrin Damon, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Corrections in Salem. "If we had a detainer on him," Damon said, "he wouldn�t have been on a work crew." Gandy�s crew was sent in early August to Jackson County to help fight a wildfire in the TouVelle Park area, according to the Oregon State Police. The fire burned more than 400 acres in the Antioch Road area north of Sams Valley. While on the firefighting crew, Gandy walked away on Aug. 9, when he was officially listed as an escapee. While on escape status, Gandy was indicted by a Josephine County grand jury on one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, two counts each of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, first-degree theft, second-degree kidnapping, and second-degree robbery � all felonies. Warrants were issued on these charges Aug. 25. Police had been warned of Gandy�s status, and pictures of him that had circulated among law-enforcement agencies helped lead to his capture, according to the OSP. At 10:50 a.m. Friday, two OSP troopers pulled over a Chevrolet Citation for a traffic citation after it ran a stop signal at the intersection of Grants Pass Parkway and Parkdale Avenue, the OSP said. During the stop, troopers recognized Gandy from his photograph, and he was arrested without incident, police said. He was lodged at the Josephine County Jail, where he was being held Monday without bail following a court appearance, jail officials said. Gandy had been serving a sentence for being a felon in possession of a weapon and several other charges in the corrections system since last October, Damon said, and he had only been at the work farm in Tillamook County about three weeks before his escape. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.