Document text
Escaped sex offender captured Wire and staff reports MYRTLE POINT -- A sex offender who escaped from prison 19 days ago by swinging over a razor-topped fence with a rope made of flag football belts was arrested Wednesday after trying to flee from police by jumping from a second-floor window. Kinney Police said James Kinney, 39, was spotted early Wednesday by Myrtle Point policeman Marvin Parker limping into this town in southern Oregon. Parker figured it might be Kinney and called Coos County, which sent a 15-member SWAT team to the apartment of Kinney's sister, where the fugitive had gone. The apartment had been under surveillance. Four SWAT team members went to the door of the apartment over an appliance repair store but he refused to answer. Kinney, who had been taking a shower and changing clothes, went out through a bathroom window. Coos County Sheriff's Lt. Larry Leader said Kinney, armed with a .22-caliber revolver, was quickly arrested after he dropped about 20 feet to the ground about 10:30 a.m. "During his fall to the ground he dropped the weapon. He was not in a position to do a lot of struggling," Leader said, adding that Kinney was stunned slightly from the drop. From the time the SWAT team arrived until the capture was about five minutes. "I'm sure the people of Myrtle Point will be sleeping a little easier tonight," Parker said. Kinney had severely infected wounds from the razor wire and cuts and bruises from his fall, said Perrin Damon, a prison spokeswoman Kinney was taken to a hospital then to the Coos County jail in Coquille. Kinney escaped from the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton on Oct. 2, and is the first ever to break out of that prison. At a Salem news conference, Oregon Corrections Director Dave Cook said Kinney would be brought to Salem and kept in the intensive management unit at Oregon State Penitentiary while officials figure out where to place him. Cook said that while he believes the Pendleton prison is basically secure, Kinney would be placed in a more secure setting. "He's a serious escape risk. He's proved that again," Cook said. The corrections chief also said investigators are trying to piece together how Kinney spent his time between the escape and Wednesday's capture. He had shed his prison blues and was wearing jeans, sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt when he was spotted by Parker. Last year, Kinney was found with a rope in his cell, which he may have been planning to use in an escape attempt. In a four-year period he escaped twice from California prisons. He had been serving a 37-year sentence for a conviction of first-and second-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sex abuse involving an attack on a 13-year-old Grants Pass girl. After the escape, authorities in Grants Pass plastered the town with fliers featuring Kinney's photo. The victim's family still lives in the area and authorities feared he might return for revenge, said police chief Ron Schwartz. "We're very relieved he's been caught," he said. "The family's been sitting on pins and needles since he got out. We never relaxed." When Kinney escaped from the prison he used the rope made of flag football belts to swing from the 37-foot-high ledge over razor wire lining the roof. The rope broke, forcing him to jump for the outer fence. He missed, fell on the wire, and cut himself. He used what was left of the rope to climb the outer fence. Leader said Kinney had used a needle and thread to try to sew up the three-inch gash in his leg. Kinney has a history of attacking police and jail deputies. In 1977 he was stopped by a Coos Bay policeman while driving a stolen car and fled into the brush. He stabbed a police dog sent in after him and when the policeman followed he stabbed him. In 1978 he was sentenced in Humboldt County, Calif., for battery on another officer. He was on parole for attempted murder when he was arrested for the rape of the young girl in 1996. While in the Josephine County Jail in Grants Pass he attacked a deputy in the jail exercise yard in an assault so vicious that other prisoners had to help the deputy and subdue Kinney. He initially went to the maximum security Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem but was transferred to the medium security facility in Pendleton because he had so many enemies in the Salem facility. Schwartz said he hopes prison officials find a more secure environment for Kinney in the future, even if it means sending him to an out-of-state facility such as California's ultra-max Pelican Bay prison in Crescent City. "They've got places for guys like him," Schwartz said. "From now on, we'd like to see him in a maximum facility." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA