Update: As predicted on December 16, 2020 in the final paragraph of this Article, Leon Taylor has been caught. He was taken into custody during the morning hours of December 30, 2020.
As of this writing on December 16, 2020 Leon Taylor, 22 and a former Hammond resident, is a fugitive from law enforcement. According to published reports from December 14, 2020 through the 16th, Leon had been extradited from Texas to face criminal charges in Lake County. Leon was flown to O’Hare Airport and transferred to a “REDI Transports” SUV for the final leg of the extradition journey to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point. It seems that Leon escaped during that final leg of the journey. The reported location of the escape was a drive-thru lane of a McDonald’s restaurant near 35th and Grant in Gary. Is Gary on any direct route from O’Hare to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point? The unidentified REDI Transports driver is reported to have rolled down a vehicle window at Leon’s request, whereupon Leon exited the vehicle and scampered to whereabouts unknown despite shackles in the form of handcuffs connected to a “belly chain” and some sort of leg brace that should have prevented running. An intensive police search of the area was unavailing.
Already there is contradiction of the REDI Transports driver’s report of the escape. Surveillance video (which I have viewed) shows Leon opening the rear passenger side door of the vehicle and then running off. While Leon was outside the vehicle but not yet running, it appears that he pulled at the leg brace, possibly to move it from the knee joint. The unidentified driver appeared to be surprised when Leon departed the vehicle, but whether that appearance of surprise was genuine is a matter of some doubt. The video shows the rear passenger door window lowered just a few inches, not nearly enough to aid an escape or even to accommodate Leon’s reported need to spit (through an open window) before eating.
If the published accounts are accurate, then the unidentified driver (whose face is blurred in the video) has already made a false report to police. I find myself suspicious that the REDI Transports vehicle was in Gary. I find myself suspicious that the driver decided (or agreed) to stop for food. The escape happened around 2:09 p.m., too late for a jail lunch but plenty early for Leon to enjoy dinner at the Lake County Jail.
In today’s NWI Times, there is the indignant criticism of REDI Transports from Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter. Prosecutor Carter accuses “the security company” of acting “negligently” and thereby endangering the public. He threatened a lawsuit to force the security firm to reimburse the supposed costs of searching for Leon. Instead of indulging in public posturing¹ about negligence, Bernie Carter should be looking for whatever CONTRACT there is between Lake County and REDI Transports. Then Bernie needs to talk to the County entity (the Commissioners? . . . the Superior Court?) having standing to enforce that CONTRACT. Then Bernie needs to step out of the way except for prosecuting the criminally guilty. I’m sure that Prosecutor Carter can find a suitable criminal charge against the driver based upon reckless behavior, for example, rather than purposefully aiding the escape of Leon Taylor.
What’s the backstory with Leon? From the “Odyssey” online court docket I found felony cases for “Leon Taylor” of Hammond going back to July of 2016. I saw two felony cases in 2016, one in 2017, and then five more in November of 2018. The big online docket entry is the murder charge filed November 25, 2020, six days after a murder in East Chicago. It looks like Leon decided to get out of town for a while. Then he was arrested in Dallas, Texas and extradited. You know the rest.
But why was Leon at liberty when Daniel Nitzsche was murdered in November? On six felony counts from 2018 Leon Taylor was granted a bond reduction to $50,000.00 surety or $5,000.00 cash. The bond reduction was entered on July 23, 2019 by now retired Judge Clarence D. Murray of the Lake Superior Court Criminal Division. Surety bond was entered in the Clerk’s Office much later on March 18, 2020. The Order reducing bond mentioned no objection from the County Prosecutor. If the murder charge allegations are true or nearly true then one consequence of that bond reduction was the violent death of Daniel Nitzsche.
Why wasn’t Leon brought to trial on that multitude of 2018 felonies and then shipped off to prison for a few decades? I have no answer. Try asking Bernie Carter. It isn’t as though Leon’s crimes in 2018 were minor or victimless. From the online docket I found eight counts of armed robbery plus one count of residential burglary and one more count of battery by means of a deadly weapon.
Leon will be caught. Leon should never again be the beneficiary of a bond reduction. Here’s hoping that the local criminal justice system can actually learn a lesson and then remember it. Those other than the REDI Transports driver who have endangered the public by act or by omission should practice some introspection to appreciate their complicity and then apologize and take responsibility.
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¹ “The lady doth protest too much, methinks” Hamlet, Act III, Scene II.
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