Authorities ID inmate who escaped from prison

Authorities say Igor Bolte is the inmate who on Friday night escaped from prison in Pocopson.

NEW GARDEN >> Impulsiveness is what got Igor Vidra Bolte into legal trouble in the first place. It is what will now likely add to his woes.

Authorities have identified Bolte as the inmate who on Friday night is said to have escaped from the Chester County Prison in Pocopson, setting off a large manhunt by prison officers and law enforcement agencies that resulted in his capture a little over three hours later.

Bolte, who had been serving a three-month sentence for assaulting a West Chester police officer during an emotional meltdown, now faces felony escape charges. He was arraigned on Monday by Magisterial District Judge Albert Iacocca of Kennett Square, and ordered held without bail.

According to county officials and a criminal complaint filed by Chester County Detective James Ciliberto, Bolte had been incarcerated at the prison since June 12. Because of the short duration of his three-month minimum sentence, he was housed at the Work Release Center on the prison grounds, a minimum security facility used primarily to house non-violent first-time offenders and those who have been granted work release, allowing them to leave the prison grounds for specified times during the day.

At approximately 11:15 p.m. on Friday, Bolte, walked out of the center’s building without permission, disobeyed direct orders from a corrections officer to stop, then ran into the center’s exercise yard and scaled a fence. He fled on foot into the woods on South Wawaset Road.

The prison’s escape plan was immediately set into action, including the sounding of a siren to alert neighbors that an escape had occurred. Law enforcement agencies — including the state police at Avondale, the Chester County Sheriff’s Office, and other prison staff — were notified of the escape, and a perimeter search began in the area around the prison.

According to Ciliberto’s complaint, Bolte was found on a residential street — Wawaset Farm Lane — off South Wawaset Road at approximately 2:40 a.m. Saturday by state police and sheriff’s deputies. It is unlikely that he knew anyone in the neighborhood. He was returned to the prison, and was formally charged with escape later that day.

According to court records, Bolte, 26, of West Goshen, was arrested on Sept. 1, 2018, by borough police for the incident which landed him in prison in June.

A complaint filed by Officer Aaron Davis states that police were called to the area of South New and West Nields streets by Bolte’s brother, Alexander B. Bolte, for the report of an emotional disorder. Alexander Bolte told Davis that his brother was having a nervous breakdown and had possibly been using unknown substances that helped set him off.

Davis was able to make contact with Igor Bolte on New Street, at which time Bolte denied that Alexander Bolte was his brother, and that he belonged to the KGB, according to the complaint. The two men are Russian natives who were adopted by a Chester County executive and his wife. Without warning, Bolte ran from Davis down West Nields Street, where a second officer, David Stuart, had just parked his patrol car.

According to the arrest affidavit, when Bolte spotted Stuart, he ran across the street at full speed and plowed into the officer without provocation, knocking him to the ground. Stuart received only minor injuries.

After he was taken into custody, Bolte told Davis that he had used marijuana that day, but that it might have been laced with something since he reacted differently to the drug than he normally did, making him very excited.

In June, when he was sentenced by President Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody, Bolte said that he had also been emotionally upset at the time over the recent death of another brother. She accepted his plea, worked out between his attorney, Michael Skinner of West Chester, and the Deputy District Attorney.

He pleaded guilty a single count of aggravated assault and was sentenced to three to 23 months in prison. The charge of escape, a felony of the third degree, carries with it a maximum term of 3½ to seven years in state prison.

Skinner, reached Tuesday, said that he had not spoken with Bolte about the matter and declined to comment on the case.

Bolte had previously served 72 hours at the county prison for a 2013 drunk driving arrest.