BATON ROUGE — Mertis Wade, a 25-year-old who walked off from a job site Tuesday with the West Baton Rouge Parish work release program, was captured at the Krewe of Caesar parade in Metairie on Saturday night, according to WBRZ.
The report said Wade told authorities he escaped because he wanted to see his girlfriend.
Wade, a Department of Corrections inmate in the parish’s custody through its work release program, was cleaning dishes at a restaurant on Valentine’s Day when the job site was so busy that it needed an extra set of hands, WBRSO Sheriff’s Office Col. Richie Johnson said. The restaurant brought on a fourth washer instead of the normal three, Johnson said, and when the manager shift changed, Wade walked away. After the restaurant’s supervisors failed to recognize Wade missing, deputies also failed to do so in three separate headcounts.
“It was pure ass somebody not doing their damn job,” Johnson said. “There’s no sense in sugar coating it to make us sound fancy.”
Click here to read WBRZ’s full story.
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