The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office has stepped up security at its south precinct following the escape of a suspected burglar.
“We’ve taken all precautions to make sure it won’t happen again,” sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.
She declined to provide details about the additional security.
“We don’t want to provide a blueprint for other people” who want to escape, Jorgensen said.
The escape of Richard Anderson, 35, was the first from the holding cell, Jorgensen said. Anderson forced open the cell door after he was arrested June 10.
Handcuffed, he ran from the building and hid for seven days before he was recaptured in the attic of his parents’ home in Mountlake Terrace on Thursday. His parents were on vacation at the time.
Anderson escaped because he wrongly believed he was facing life in prison under the state’s “three strikes” law, said his brother, Steve Anderson.
Under the law, offenders convicted of three violent crimes can be sentenced to life in prison. Richard Anderson has 36 convictions, but none for violent crimes. His most serious convictions were for possessing methamphetamine and stolen property.
He was arrested June 10 after he allegedly broke into a neighbor’s home in the 20400 block of Little Bear Creek Road in Woodinville and stole some items, according to an affidavit filed in Superior Court.
He claimed a friend committed the burglary, the affidavit says. He told the detectives “numerous times that he wanted to make a deal so he could walk out of the precinct without going to jail.”
The detectives refused. After he finished talking to them, they put him in a 6- by 8-foot room used as a holding cell at the south precinct in Mill Creek to await a ride to the county jail in Everett.
About five minutes later, he broke the room’s deadbolt lock and escaped, the affidavit says. Jorgensen would not say how he got out of the building. Richard Anderson told his brother he made a run for it.
Deputies realized within a few minutes that Richard Anderson was gone, Jorgensen said, after seeing the door to the holding cell open. Deputies had gone to check on him immediately after a detective notified them he was in the holding cell, she said.
The room is monitored by a security camera, she said, but did not know if any deputies saw the escape. Richard Anderson did not have access to any sheriff’s weapons or equipment after he broke out, Jorgensen said.
No sheriff’s employees have been disciplined in connection with the escape, she said.
Police throughout Snohomish County were notified of Richard Anderson’s escape, but the public wasn’t because he had no history of violent crime, Jorgensen said. “We didn’t think he was a safety risk to the public.”
Richard Anderson has pleaded not guilty to charges of burglary and second-degree escape. He’s being held on $25,000 bail at the jail.
Reporter Katherine Schiffner: 425-339-3436 or schiffner@heraldnet.com.
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