By Stephanie K. Baer
Chicago Tribune
A handcuffed prisoner who escaped from Elgin Mental Health Center custody earlier this month was being transported in a van with three security officers when he fled out the vehicle’s rear door, a police report shows.
Jesse Vega, 33, also identified in court records as Jesse Ortiz, fled from the van just before 8 a.m. July 16 by opening the rear door while the vehicle was stopped at a gas station at Summit Street and Dundee Avenue in Elgin, according to an Elgin Police Department report obtained by the Tribune.
Vega, who was handcuffed in front, was being transported from the state-run mental health hospital to a hearing at the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan. They stopped so the front seat passenger could use the bathroom, the report said.
It was unclear from the report whether the driver and the employee who sat directly behind the driver’s seat were in the vehicle when Vega escaped.
Officials at the Illinois Department of Human Services, which operates the Elgin facility, have declined to share department procedures for transporting prisoners to and from mental centers.
Vega was recaptured about eight hours later after he tried to hail a cab near St. John and Summit streets in Elgin. His escape prompted a large-scale manhunt, complete with search helicopters and heavy police presence.
Vega had been placed at the Elgin center after being declared unfit for trial on charges brought against him last September in Lake County. He is accused of attacking a woman he knew in the parking lot of Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, fracturing her skull and causing her brain to bleed.
Vega was charged with aggravated domestic battery, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, aggravated battery in a public place, obstructing justice and aggravated driving under influence with a suspended or revoked license.
Information in the report also suggests the escape may have been premeditated. A friend who visited Vega at the Elgin Mental Health Center on July 12 told police that Vega “appeared distraught and worried” and said he needed more money for an attorney.
When detectives made contact with the friend who visited Vega, he told them, “I knew it would only be a matter of time before you guys came to find me,” according to the report.
He said Vega “was feeling down about his situation” and knew that his charges were “serious.”
Vega said to the friend, “I don’t know what I’m going to do, I need to get out of here,” according to the report.
“Jesse made no specific statements about attempting to escape, but given the totality of the circumstances, (his friend) seemed to believe that Jesse was contemplating the escape for several days,” the report said.
When Vega hailed a cab around 4 p.m. on the day of his escape, he asked the driver to take him to O’Hare International Airport, the report said. The driver stalled Vega by telling him needed the cash for the ride first, prompting Vega to borrow the driver’s cellphone to call a cousin in Chicago for the money.
Soon after, police arrived and arrested him, according to the report. At the time, only his right wrist remained in handcuffs, the report said.
At a bond hearing the day after his escape, Vega told a judge that he hears voices and needs help, according to Kane County prosecutors. He was charged with escape from a penal institution the next day and remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail.
Vega is due back in court on his escape charge for a fitness status hearing Aug. 7 in St. Charles.
Copyright 2014 the Chicago Tribune