Extradition of fugitives isn’t always guaranteed

Cathy Scott

Friday, July 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

If a fugitive comes to Las Vegas and is caught by Metro Police, there's a 30 percent chance he or she will get a free ride home in handcuffs.

The remaining fugitives who are caught are set free if their local or state jurisdictions don't come and get them and if they have not committed crimes here, said Lt. Wayne Petersen, who heads Metro's fugitive detail.

Last year, Metro arrested more than 2,100 fugitives from other jurisdictions, he said.

"Thirty to 35 percent -- or about 700 of them -- are released back on the streets of Las Vegas, and some of them commit crimes again in our jurisdiction," Petersen said.

"If, for whatever reason, they (other police departments) decline to come and get a prisoner, we let him go if there aren't any local charges. It's not our fault, but it's our problem that these criminals are released on the streets of Las Vegas. In some cases, the jurisdiction may say, 'He's Las Vegas' problem now. We're not going to bring him back.'"

When it's the other way around, the percentage is about the same, Petersen said, with Metro picking up about 30 percent of Las Vegas fugitives caught in other cities and states.

"We have to prioritize which prisoners are worth taxpayer money to go pick up," Peterson said. "It costs between $3,000 and $4,000 to bring them back."

The U.S. marshal's air transport service, dubbed Con Air, offers free air travel for federal fugitives, as well as for local and state fugitives if space allows, said Tom Little, Chief of the Air Operations Division.

With its fleet of 12, prisoners are flown around the nation "every day, all day long," Little said.

But Metro usually sends two officers or detectives out of town, mostly via commercial airline, to pick up a fugitive.

"The time factor is big for us," Petersen said. "We only have 10 to 15 days to pick them up. They (U.S. marshal's air service) fly a very limited flight schedule."

Little said the number of prisoners from local and state jurisdictions using the service "is fairly low."

"We don't have that many seats available," he said. "The majority of our business are federal prisoners."

But he noted, "We do do a recognizable amount of state and local movements."

"It is possible to call up today and get somebody on a flight tomorrow," Little said, "because there are cancellations and flight changes. But it depends on where the individual is going from and to. Usually it takes three days to a week to arrange it."

Petersen said, "It's not easy to arrange. By the time the paperwork is done ... sometimes we're facing just a few days (to extradite)."

Little agreed that "if there are numerous legs involved with overnight stays, I can see where it would be quite cumbersome."

He said the federal transportation service has flights daily in and out of Las Vegas from Southern California because they move illegal aliens from Southern California to Las Vegas to temporarily house them.

"If Las Vegas wanted to extradite someone from California, it would be a piece of cake," he said. "But if Las Vegas wanted to extradite someone from Maryland, it would not be as simple because we do not have a direct flight, and it would involve several stops and probably an overnight stay at our headquarters in Oklahoma City."

Metro and other cities' fugitive apprehension programs were featured on a recent "60 Minutes" segment. Reporter Lesley Stahl came down hard on local officials for not using Con Air.

J. Charles Thompson, assistant district attorney, told "60 Minutes" he wasn't aware of the service. But he said it's not his office's place to move prisoners. Instead, his office makes the decision whether to extradite a fugitive from Las Vegas caught in another jurisdiction. Then it's up to Metro to bring the prisoner back.

"It's based upon a number of factors," Thompson said. "First of all, we review the case to see if it has prosecutorial merit."

He described it as "a balancing act in terms of whether it's worth the time and money bringing that person back."

"We do not extradite for misdemeanors," he said, "and we as a rule don't extradite gross misdemeanors."

Metro also has its own air transportation system, nicknamed Air Metro, using its twin-engine Cessna for some extraditions.

"Sometimes the person is too violent to fly commercial," Petersen said. "If it's Southern California, Arizona, someplace close, sometimes we use ground transportation," Petersen said. "Most of the time we use commercial air."

To extradite or not, though, is a weighty decision for the district attorney's office, Thompson said.

On rare occasions, Thompson said the prisoner is required to paying his own way back, as in the case of four-time National League batting champion Bill Madlock.

Madlock was charged earlier this year with kiting checks at casinos and was returned to Las Vegas from New York, but at his own expense, Thompson said.

Also, Thompson said, "American Express, which was being ripped off along with hotels, actually paid to bring someone back from out of the country a few years ago."

Petersen considers fugitives in Las Vegas from other cities to be "obviously a problem for our community that these criminals are released."

"It's just the reality of the situation," he said. "No one has an unlimited budget. There are certain constraints that everyone has to work within."

As for continuing to spend the money to pick up Las Vegas fugitives from other cities, Petersen said Metro is doing a study to see if it's feasible in some cases to use private agencies, or ground transportation services, to save money and man-hours.

While Metro made 2,108 fugitive arrests in 1993, Los Angeles arrested 1,856 fugitives, Phoenix-Maricopa County processed 1,195 and San Francisco made 479 arrests.

"We did a lot of fugitive arrests here for lots of reasons," Petersen said. "There were 29 million visitors here. They're caught for lots of different reasons, stopped on routine traffic stops, they commit crimes here and they're caught, or they're involved in other disturbance-type calls.

"For some reason they come into contact with the police department, and then running their name through the national computer, we find they're wanted someplace else."