{"id":64780,"date":"2019-10-04T21:02:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T03:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/inmate-escapes-la-plata-county-jail-fugitive-and-2-family-members-arrested\/"},"modified":"2019-10-05T03:02:23","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T03:02:23","slug":"inmate-escapes-la-plata-county-jail-fugitive-and-2-family-members-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/inmate-escapes-la-plata-county-jail-fugitive-and-2-family-members-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Inmate escapes La Plata County Jail; fugitive and 2 family members arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"An
An inmate escaped over a razor-wire fence at the La Plata County jail in late September. He was arrested about 14 hours after the alleged escape.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango man who law enforcement says scaled a fence topped with barbed wire and escaped the La Plata County Jail weeks ago is back in custody, this time with his mother and brother, who are suspected of aiding in the escape.<\/p>\n

Jeramy Hopkins, 28, who was enrolled in the jail\u2019s trustee program \u2013 which allows incarcerated people to perform jobs around the jail to earn \u201cgood time\u201d \u2013 was taking out the trash the night of Sept. 20 when deputies lost track of his whereabouts for about four minutes, said sheriff\u2019s Capt. Ed Aber, the jail\u2019s top administrator.<\/p>\n

A review of surveillance footage determined no jail deputy appeared to be present and other trustees were outside camera view when Hopkins made his escape, according to arresting documents.<\/p>\n

Aber said a supervisor watching the trustees was responsible for 18 people as they walked around outside and inside the kitchen. Hopkins, at an opportune moment, ran around a corner toward a 6-foot-high fence, Aber said.<\/p>\n

It took about nine seconds from the time Hopkins started running for him to scale the fence and escape incarceration, Aber said. It took about four minutes for law enforcement to confirm his escape, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody that\u2019s 6-foot-1 or -2, it\u2019s not much of an obstacle or barrier,\u201d Aber said of the jail\u2019s fence. \u201cIt\u2019s not designed to keep people in, it\u2019s kind of designed to keep people out.\u201d Hopkins is 6-foot-2, court documents show.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office declined to share footage of the alleged escape, citing an active investigation and safety concerns.<\/p>\n

Hopkins was arrested about 10 a.m. the next day, Sept. 21, by the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, which found him in a house in Bloomfield.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office did not notify the public of the alleged escape at the time of the incident because Hopkins is not accused of a violent crime, and \u201cI wasn\u2019t concerned about public safety, I was concerned about getting him back into custody,\u201d Aber said in an interview with The Durango Herald.<\/em> The Sheriff\u2019s Office sent a news release this week after receiving an inquiry from the Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Jeramy
Jeramy Hopkins<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A review of phone calls between Hopkins and his mother and brother \u2013 Amy Hopkins, 49, and Dylan Hopkins, 27 \u2013 found the inmate and his family planned the escape in the days leading up to Sept. 20, court documents show.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeramy relayed to Dylan and Amy that he was facing anywhere from eight to 32 years in prison and both Dylan and Amy were despondent over that prospect,\u201d law enforcement wrote in an arrest affidavit for Amy Hopkins. \u201cThey had also been talking repeatedly about bail money and not having enough to bond Jeramy out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law enforcement charged Hopkins on Sept. 5 with possession of burglary tools, a Class 5 felony punishable by one to three years in prison and $1,000 to $100,000 in fines; and theft, a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by three to 12 months in jail and a fine of $250 to $1,000.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also been charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture or distribute, a Class 2 drug felony punishable by four to eight years in prison and a fine of $3,000 to $750,000.<\/p>\n

Hopkins and his family members planned the time and route of Hopkins\u2019 escape, according to the Sheriff\u2019s Office. Law enforcement believe Hopkins\u2019 father, Richard Hopkins, aided in the escape but did not know his son was a fugitive from justice; in fact, Richard Hopkins \u201cwas instrumental in his capture,\u201d said sheriff\u2019s spokesman Chris Burke.<\/p>\n

Aber said jail deputies reviewed the recordings and alerted patrolling law enforcement of the circumstances within 20 minutes of discovering the alleged escape. Amy and Dylan were arrested the night of Sept. 20; Jeramy was arrested the next morning.<\/p>\n

Hopkins\u2019 mother and brother were charged with aiding escape, a Class 3 felony punishable by four to 12 years in prison and a fine of $3,000 to $750,000. His father has not been charged.<\/p>\n

Jeramy Hopkins faces accusations of escape, a Class 3 felony punishable by four to 12 years and a fine of $3,000 to $750,000. He is being held on bond that totals $75,000 in at least three cases: $5,000 for the burglary tools and theft case, $20,000 for the drug possession case and $50,000 for the escape case.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn escape from jail is not anything to be proud of, but the positive to focus on was the quick response from Sheriff\u2019s Office patrol, investigations, Durango Police Department and San Juan County,\u201d Aber said. \u201cThe response we got from them was amazing. The fact that he was out of the facility for just 14 hours shows that it worked. The fact that we arrested people involved the evening before \u2013 that response piece is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office has since implemented procedural changes to reduce the risk of escape, including stricter policies on who can be outside at certain times and under certain people\u2019s supervision, Aber said. It could install a taller fence, but that could be expensive and people will escape regardless of the height of a fence, he said. People escaped the Robert E. DeNier youth detention center when it was open, which has 20-foot-high fences, he noted.<\/p>\n

More deputies could help, Aber said \u2013 the jail\u2019s population has increased by 60% in four years<\/a>. The average daily population of the jail hovers around 204 people, and there\u2019s one deputy for every 34 inmates, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not crying because we\u2019re understaffed and overworked. That\u2019s a reality. We\u2019re doing more with less all the time. We\u2019ve got more programs in jail than ever, more inmates than ever,\u201d Aber said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have 20 extra bodies to throw at the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango man nabbed in Bloomfield after allegedly hopping fence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1065,13,1024,1901,29,4259,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango-police-department","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-la-plata-county-jail","tag-la-plata-county-sheriff","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64780"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}