A 22-year-old inmate dashed out of a courtroom in Kent Tuesday morning, running for several blocks on 4th Avenue before being caught.
Kenneth L. William, who previously served time for property destruction and theft, was in court Tuesday for a hearing in a case in which he is accused of stealing a car by driving it off a dealership’s lot.
William is seen on surveillance video talking to his public defender at a table in a fourth-floor courtroom, then quickly darting across the room within four seconds to reach the back door. Officers ran after him but couldn't grab him before got out of the building.
A witness then called police after seeing a man in a red jumpsuit running past a Starbucks coffee shop.
Police were able to catch him hiding in a commercial parking garage near 4th Avenue and Meeker Street. That's one block away from a Kent police station.
A King County sheriff's spokesperson said the department's marshals only handle screening procedures at entrances to county courthouses like the Maleng Regional Justice Center.
That courthouse however, has a set of doors facing 4th Avenue that is for exiting only and does not have security standing by.
Sheriff’s deputies are not assigned to courtrooms unless a judge has asked for them.
In cases where inmates are brought to court, Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention staff escort them.
Capt. Troy Bacon, a spokesperson for that department, responded to KIRO 7 after this story aired. Bacon said that their guards are the only ones acting as security in courtrooms.
He said it is typical that an inmate would be uncuffed after entering the courtroom. He said the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention is revisiting policies and procedures to ensure security of the public, the courthouse and the inmates.
Robert Williams, a public defender who did not work on William’s case, said this isn’t the first time this has happened.
“Sometimes the officers get distracted. Sometimes there’s a lot of things going on. People take their eyes off of him,” he said. “They try to prevent it from happening. But it’s a human thing!”
David O, a lawyer who was in a trial just one floor below the fast break, said a judge walked into the room in plainclothes, to speak to the judge presiding over his case.
“The judge ordered all the jurors to be locked into their jury room. The judge went back into their chambers, locked the door, and our courtroom was locked as well. So we were hanging out inside the courtroom, waiting,” O said.
He said the building is very secure and he couldn’t imagine someone truly getting away.
"But I know just from hearing Judge Thorpe's opinion of what happened today, they're going to have a lot of meetings as to how this did happen," he said.
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