Commissioners seek reimbursement for prisoner capture

The Lake County Board of Commissioners approved sending a letter to REDI Transports to reimburse the county more than $30,000 for the capture of a murder suspect, who escaped when a private driver extraditing him stopped at a Gary McDonald’s.

Leon Taylor, 22, of Hammond, escaped Dec. 14 when a REDI Transports driver stopped at a McDonald’s in Gary, and he was captured in East Chicago on Dec. 30, officials said. He was being extradited from Texas. Since then, the Lake County courts, tasked with extradition, have decided to no longer work with REDI Transports, officials said.

In the letter, Lake County Board of Commissioners President Michael Repay, D-Hammond, wrote that the county is seeking $30,757.99 from the company for three departments: $25,684.58 to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department; $1,038.53 for the Lake County Prosecutor’s

Office; $884.88 for the City of Gary Police Department and $3,150 an amount paid to REDI Transports.

Taylor, who according to court records has previous robbery charges against him, has been charged in the Nov. 19 shooting death of Daniel Nitzsche, 52, of East Chicago, according to court records.

“Based upon the visual evidence and the inconsistent statements of the transport officer, there is very little doubt that REDI Transports and its employee were grossly negligent in the transport of Mr. Taylor back to Lake County,” Repay wrote in the letter.

“The letter is a first step in demanding that they do account for what they’ve done, account for the errors that they made and their employees made,” Repay told the Post-Tribune.

Crystal Cook, president of REDI Transports, Green Bay, Wisconsin, said in a statement that the company has received a letter from The Lake County Board of Commissioners “regarding the intent to recover the costs associated with the capture of Leon Taylor” and that the company is working with its advisers to request a further breakdown of the expenses.

“Due to the nature of the situation, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time,” Cook said in the statement.

Janet Cusick, the court manager for Lake County Criminal Courts, said the courts used to only use Prisoner Transport Service to extradite inmates. But, when

the pandemic began, PTS increased their prices because inmates couldn’t be transported in groups in cars and some had to fly across country, Cusick said.

Within the last year, Cusick said the county added REDI Transports as a transportation vendor. In total, REDI Transports has done two extraditions for the county, including Taylor, she said.

When Taylor’s extradition bid was placed, REDI Transports was cheaper compared to PTS, Cusick said. But, after he escaped, Cusick said it became clear why REDI Transportation was the cheaper option.

“They only had one agent instead of two. PTS always has two,” Cusick said.

After the Taylor extradition, REDI never sent a bill so the county hasn’t paid for the cost, Cusick said. But, the courts have since decided not to use REDI Transports as a transportation vendor, she said.

The county has also approved two more transportation vendors — Avalon and the U.S. Fugitive Extradition Bureau — and the courts have decided the new policy is to send an extradition bid to all of its vendors and award it to the lowest bidder, Cusick said.

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said that REDI Transports “should be held liable” for the costs, and supports the letter. The Lake County Sheriff’s Department should be placed in charge of extraditions, he said.

Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez said in a statement that the department led the search for Taylor, through the detective bureau, special operations task force, aviation unit helicopter and K-9 unit along with assistance from other local, state and federal agencies.

Through mid-December until Dec. 30, the department used surveillance, obtained subpoenas for phone records and interviewing witnesses until Taylor was located in East Chicago, Martinez said.

“This successful search operation consumed a considerable amount of our resources, and I fully support the Lake County Board of Commissioners letter requesting a recovery of these costs,” Martinez said.