{"id":71231,"date":"2016-11-23T18:15:17","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T01:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriff-plans-to-address-escapes-from-montezuma-courts\/"},"modified":"2016-11-24T01:15:17","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T01:15:17","slug":"sheriff-plans-to-address-escapes-from-montezuma-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriff-plans-to-address-escapes-from-montezuma-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff plans to address escapes from Montezuma courts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Officials are making efforts to improve security at Montezuma county and district court after several people have recently escaped from court while in custody, Sheriff Steve Nowlin said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can happen,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cWe need to have better security. Our job is to keep it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials will be meeting with court administrators next week to discuss improvements that can be made at both court locations, he said. They will find a more secure space to hold people who have been convicted or remanded from court and are waiting to be transported to the detention center, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should alleviate the problem and get that taken care of,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 8, Alexander Kordes, an 18-year-old man, escaped district court while waiting to be taken to jail. He fled the courthouse and escaped by foot down a Cortez city street. A deputy stationed at the entrance of the courthouse lost sight of him, but a witness stated he saw \u201ca kid running in a southwestern direction\u201d from the building.<\/p>\n

He jumped into a waiting vehicle, Nowlin said. Kordes was arrested on Oct. 16, according to Montezuma County jail records. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in county court on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

Samantha Lamke, 30, escaped from district court on Nov. 8 after being convicted of possession of a controlled substance, a class 4 felony, according to a report from the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office. She was apprehended by Cortez Police officers and deputies at a Cortez residence on Nov. 17.<\/p>\n

Only one security officer was on duty when Lamke escaped, Nowlin said. The department has money to pay for four total court security officers, with the county and state providing funding for two each. But Nowlin has applied for a state grant that would provide funding for two more, bringing the total to six.<\/p>\n

The sheriff said some people might not realize how many people go in and out of court and pass through security every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other people in the courthouse the deputies have to watch,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

As the population of the area increases, the workload also increases for law enforcement and court staff, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Though the jail has been crowded over the past few months, it\u2019s down to about 90 inmates now, he said. Education programs are helpful for inmates and reduce recidivism, so the department will continue to develop those, he said.<\/p>\n

Increased training for deputies has been paying off, but there\u2019s still room for improvement in the department, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Nowlin asked county commissioners for an increased budget in 2017 to hire 10 new deputies. The commissioners rejected that request in October, saying the county couldn\u2019t afford his request or the district attorney\u2019s request for a new hire because of falling oil and gas tax revenues from Kinder Morgan. County administrator Melissa Brunner reported that a hiring freeze and budget cut may be necessary to offset a $920,000 shortfall in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a possible $920,000 shortfall,\u201d she said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t ask for it if it wasn\u2019t justified,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

escapes reveal gaps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-71231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71231","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=71231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71231"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=71231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}