Jail Escape Drama Continues

By Amy Hart in News on Feb 23, 2006 3:00PM

A lot has happened since last week when we talked about a politically misguided Cook County jail guard, Darin Gater, who helped six inmates escape in an attempt to help out sheriff candidate Richard Remus.

It turns out that a captain from Cook County Jail was tipped off about the planned escape hours before it happened. The captain said he then told a sergeant on the Special Operations Response Team (SORT) about it, but it is unclear what happened after SORT was informed.

Gater was charged for his role in aiding the escapees, but says he is innocent and his confession was coerced. Five other SORT guards were suspended after their supervisor said they did not take proper action after he informed them of the planned escape. The guards insist they had nothing to do with the escape and that the supervisor never told them about the tip.

Then yesterday NBC5’s Phil Rogers spoke to one of the recaptured escapees, David Earnest, who said no guards helped in the escape and that it happened after the inmates spent months planning and then overpowered Gater in a jail shower to attain the keys opening nearly all the doors in the jail. Earnest, who it should be noted is an accused murderer, called it a “walk in the park.”

With all the confusion, the only certain things appear to be that somebody is lying, and at some point the tip about the escape was mishandled. Here's hoping the next sheriff will implement a better system of checks and balances in handling such incidents in the future.