Saginaw prosecutor says parole will come too early
Grand Rapid Press
SAGINAW, Mich. — The state parole board says Susan LeFevre can go home in May if she behaves herself, but at least one top Saginaw County criminal justice official says the board made the wrong decision.
Parole board members voted unanimously Wednesday to set the 54-year-old former fugitive free May 19.
LeFevre was on the lam for 32 years after escaping from the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth in 1976, just a little more than a year into a 10- to 20-year sentence for violating drugs laws and conspiring to commit that crime in Saginaw County.
 Susan LeFevre, 53, escaped from a Michigan prison more than 30 years ago. (AP Photo) |
Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael Thomas disagrees with the parole board.
“The explanation you hear from people is that she lived an exemplary life while she was out on escape,” Thomas said. “Well, sure she did. She didn’t want to get caught, and she had some advantages in terms of her economic means that most people who are incarcerated don’t have.
“I don’t know what you can say now to the 48,000 people in prison today or the millions of inmates who served their sentences in their entirety all over American in the last 32 years. What distinguishes her? What sets her apart for special treatment?”
Thomas said he believes LeFevre should serve at least as much time as her co-defendant. LeFevre’s co-defendant and former boyfriend, Richard Anderson, served 3 1/2 years of a 10- to 20-year sentence.
If authorities release LeFevre on May 19, she will have served about a year less.
The state Department of Corrections Absconder Recovery Unit caught up with LeFevre in Del Mar, Calif., a suburb of San Diego where she was living as Marie Walsh in a $2 million home with a husband and three children. Her family had no knowledge of her criminal record.
An anonymous tip led police to her doorstep in April.
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