You may have heard on Friday that the famous Wall-Crawler will be dressed
in a new black costume, in the 2007 Sony film “Spider-Man 3,” instead of his
old, nerdy red and blue suit. Here in Schenectady, NY, we had a Spidey of
our own this week, but he was dressed in bright prisoner orange. [articles
and local comment collected here]
The Schenectady County jail is right next door to our main County Office Building
and courts, at the edge of our downtown district, and a little over a mile from my
home. Operated by the Schenectady [NY] County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD),
and Sheriff Harry Buffardi, the jail had its first escape since 1987. The story would
be rather entertaining, if it didn’t suggest quite a bit of ineptitude in an agency that
is important for public safety.
Edwin Ortiz
photo: P.R.Barber/Gazette
The star of the show is 41-year-old Edwin Ortiz, who has been out of prison only
about half a year out of the last 20. When released in March 2005 from a Penn-
sylvania prison, he and his girlfriend (Rhonda L. Nickell-Spearman) went on an armed
robbery spree that ended last October in Schenectady, after a dangerous, high-speed
vehicular chase. At that time, he allegedly threatened to kill the arresting officer, saying
he would not be taken alive. His jailors soon learned that Ortiz had escaped from a
Pittsburgh juvenile detension center in 1982, using a knife to threaten his “house mother.”
After his arrest, Ortiz admitted to gun-point robberies in Herkimer County, Syracuse,
Philadelphia, New York City, Erie, Pa., and Bergen, N.J. (Newsday/AP, Feb. 22, 2006)
Sheriff Buffardi has had a distinguished career in SCSD,
rising from jail guard to Sheriff, and has written a well-regard-
ed History of the Office of Sheriff. Given Ortiz’s history, Buffardi
assured the public this week that “we had him on extraordinary
watch.”
Tuesday night, however, it was Ortiz who acted extraordinarily. From news stories,
including interviews with Ortiz after his capture, here’s a quick summary of the
tale [see “Inmate Escapes from County Jail: authorities consider man dangerous,”
Schenectady [NY] Gazettte, by Kathleen Moore, Feb. 22, 2006, $ub. only, but, repro-
duced here; “Jailbreak details provided;” Gazettte, by Steven Cook, Feb. 23, 2006, re-
produced here, at Reply 8); “Ortiz talks; Buffardi stews,” Gazettte, by Steven Cook,
Feb. 24, 2006,r eproduced here, at Reply 12); “No plan doomed fugitive: Edwin Ortiz
details desperate attempt to flee . .,” by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Albany [NY]
Times Union, Feb. 24, 2006; CapitalNews9, “Inmate who escaped now in police cus-
tody,” Feb. 23, 2006]:
The recreation area of the Schenectady County Jail , which is
located on the roof of the jail’s kitchen — surrounded on three sides by building
walls and on the fourth side by a fence; it is also enclosed on the top by fencing
that is 35′ above the ground.
About a month ago, Ortiz “noticed a flaw in a chain-link fence obscured from
the lone guard by a steel beam. An assiduous runner, Ortiz said he kicked the
fence as he jogged past everyday, jolting it free from a broken hook.” [TU] He
also began a vigorous exercise routine (running in place in his cell and deep-
knee bends, accourding to Buffardi) and a weight-loss program.
Ortiz later told the TU that he plotted to exploit a weakness in the
jail’s rooftop exercise yard, convincing himself that even plummeting to
his death in the attempt would be better than never seeing freedom again.
Sheriff Buffardi
According to CapitalNews9, Sheriff Buffardi “said he knew the fence
was loose in the rec yard but he never imagined an inmate could get
out.” However, Buffardi told the Gazette that “the rec fence was com-
promised and that went undiscovered.” The Sheriff assures County
residents that fences will now be checked regularly.
At 5:08 PM, on Feb. 21, 2006, Ortiz and a group of prisoners were escorted to the
jail’s recreation area. Ortiz recalled to the TU reporter:
As dusk approached Tuesday “I paced the yard for a couple of minutes to
hype myself up for the jump,” Ortiz said, knowing what was ahead. Then
he slipped his fit, 5-10 frame through the hole and scaled the cage unseen
by anyone except fellow inmates, authorities said.
Edwin Ortiz
by Lori Van Buren/Times Union
Standing on top, 35 feet above the pavement, Ortiz said he briefly contem-
plated the 10-to-12-foot gap that separated him from the roof of an old
dormitory. He stepped back a few feet and made a running leap, crashing
onto the adjacent roof and spraining his ankle. He then had to scramble
to different levels of that roof to reach its lowest point, where his grip slipped
and he fell 12′ straight to the ground, again hurting his ankle — an injury that
would hobble him during his tour of the “Electric City.”
Like the “real” comics-movie Spiderman, who often acts without a plan (or enough
spidey-web), Ortiz found himself “A fugitive in a strange city, injured and searching for
railroad tracks so he could hop the first train ‘anywhere out of Schenectady’.” Also,
like Spidey, he shrugged out of his work clothes and was running around in under-
wear (wearing a sweat shirt, long johns and boxer shorts). Oritz says he had no
inside or outside help, and merely found (in a bag on State Street, our main down-
town thoroughfare) the jeans, jacket and other clothes he was wearing when captured.
Sheriff Buffardi is quoted saying: “We did not anticipate that he could make
this miraculous spider-man-like jump from the top of the recreation area to
the top of another building 12 feet away.” (CapitalNews9, Feb. 22, 2006)
Buffardi told the Gazette: “I can understand his reluctance to divulge the
people who were helpful to him.”
Ortiz hobbled off, after his escape, believing that he probably had a 15-minute head
start. However, he didn’t realize that he was dealing with SCSD. Here’s what was
going on inside the jail:
– 6:12 p.m: the other inmates were escorted back to their cell blocks from
the rec yard and an officer recorded Ortiz to be back on the floor
– that same officer, who was required to make his count by visual
inspection of each inmate, recorded Ortiz (who was, after all, “on
extraordinary watch”) as present in the cell block 5 additional times
in the next hour
– 7:15 p.m: according to the officer’s log, he finally realized that he was
one man short.
“Forty-two, forty-fwee plus one missing,
that makes forty-four!” [Gazette, Feb. 26, 2006
orig. at 14]
– 7:38 p.m. : said officer gets around to notifying his supervisor of the
problem
“tinyredcheck” Because Ortiz had supposedly come in from the rec yard, and
no one could conceive of an escape off that roof, almost three
hours were spent looking inside the jail for Ortiz. “We took apart
every wiring conduit. We had to get keys to locks we haven’t
opened in years,” Buffardi said. . . . “Then we found the breach
in the recreation yard fence,” and realized they had an escape.
(Gazette, Feb. 22, 2006, B1)
– 9 p.m.: neighboring police departments alerted;
– 10:15 p.m.: general alarm sounded of the escape
Although Schenectadians went to bed Tuesday night, and awoke Wednesday
morning, knowing that a dangerous felon was at large, the Schenectady Gazette
went to bed with an edition that told of the danger in a lengthy story, but did not
bother to run a picture of Edwin Ortiz. TV stations did run photos on their local
news shows on Tuesday night.
The residents of Schenectady County were lucky. Ortiz had escaped into a city
he did not know, where he had no personal contacts; he was also very cold and
confused. (When he found the apartment of a girlfriend of one of his prison-mates,
she slammed the door in his face and told him where he could find some Puerto
Ricans) Nineteen hours after his escape, Ortiz was captured, only ten blocks from
the jail, and without injuries to the arresting officers. He apparently committed no
crimes while loose. [You can see a video interview in which Ortiz says the brief
escape was worth it. WNYT13, Feb. 23, 2006]
Luckily, Ortiz had no guns or other weapons. He told the Times Union reporter:
“I wish I would have had a gun yesterday. Just to shoot it out … to get
lucky and not have to face it anymore. . . . Guys who are facing the rest
of their lives in jail, I don’t know what holds them back.”
The TU reporter got it right:
In addition to a cinematic jailbreak story, Ortiz’ 19-hour vanishing
act has left serious questions about security at the downtown jail.
Chief among them is how a veteran guard counted Ortiz as being
in his cell block six times in the hour after he’s now believed to
have escaped.
At this point, both an internal investigation and one by the state Commission of
Correction are continuing. Sheriff Buffardi says that any disciplinary action against
the [so far unnamed] guard, who repeatedly miscounted the inmates, and others,
would stem from those investigations.
update (March 3, 2006): See quick, count to six, to learn that deputies Gerald
Treacy and Jayme Paul were fired for their negligent counting, and more. Per the
Gazette (“Sheriff fires 2 after jail escape,” by Steve Cook, March 2, 2006, repro-
duced here, reply 15):
“There were supposed to be six inmates on Ortiz’s
tier, [Sheriff Harry] Buffardi emphasized.
” ‘I don’t think it’s a difficult or tremendous burden
for us to require a count to six people,‘ Buffardi said.”
Prison fence:
the razor wire glints
with first light
George Swede –Simply Haiku (Sept. 2003, I:3)
restored prairie . . .
where the grasses end
the prison’s outer fencepostal chess —
he moves me
from his cell
winter sun begins
to warm the steering wheel
prison visit dayanother Christmas . . .
my parents visit
the son in prisonlee gurga from Fresh Scent (1998)
