By Georgia Garvey and George Houde
Chicago Tribune
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. — Former Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine said Monday that budgetary concerns may be partially to blame for last week’s dramatic escape of a prisoner from two investigators.
Robert Maday is accused of grabbing one of the investigator’s guns while being driven Thursday to the Rolling Meadows courthouse for sentencing for robberies he admitted committing in Schaumburg and Hoffman Estates.
Devine said he hoped any investigation would consider whether the escape was due to the lack of needed equipment -- specifically transport vehicles with bars or barriers separating the front from the rear seats. The car Maday rode in didn’t have such a barrier.
The two Cook County state’s attorney investigators were suspended for not following procedures that one investigator be in the front seat and one in back with the prisoner. Both investigators were in the front seat.
The U.S. Marshals office has “more appropriate transportation security vehicles” for moving prisoners, Devine said.
Sally Daly, spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, agreed with Devine’s assessment.
“I’m not saying that’s an excuse for what happened,” Daly said. “But it contributes to the potential for problems.”
The escape of Maday, a career felon, sparked a daylong manhunt through the northwest suburbs that ended Friday in West Chicago.
Maday, 39, is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 30 for sentencing on previous federal bank robbery charges, Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, said in a statement.
Samborn said officials haven’t decided what additional federal charges Maday may face. The suspect is being held without bond in the Metropolitan Correction Center in Chicago.
Rolling Meadows Deputy Chief David Scanlan said he expects state charges to be filed against Maday by the end of the week.
A repeat escape, he said, will be unlikely.
“He’s surrounded by 40 U.S. Marshals with a ball and chain around his ankle,” Scanlan said.
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