CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio 780) -- Attorneys for three of the Cook County jail guards suspended in connection with the Feb. 11 escape of six County Jail inmates categorically deny any part in the planning or execution of the escape.
Attorneys representing Officers Gene Michno and Bill Jones, and Sgt. Ivan Hernandez, accuse sheriff's police officials of making them scapegoats.
Michno and Jones were never scheduled to work on the 11th. Hernandez worked the shift before the jailbreak, finishing more than an hour before it occurred. Each is a member of the jail's elite Special Operations Response Team (SORT).
"We had absolutely nothing to do with the escape on February 11th," Hernandez said.
It was the only statement the guards made.
Attorneys Christopher Mammel and Dana Kurtz said a supervising captain never warned Hernandez of an impending escape that day, despite a warning Chicago Police gave the captain, who has not been suspended in connection with the incident.
Mammel and Kurtz said Hernandez was told only that there could be a knife on the cellblock. They said Hernandez asked if he should conduct a search, but he claims the captain said he'd let him know later. They said the captain never did, although the two spoke again before Hernandez finished his shift, and said that only someone with the rank of lieutenant or above has the authority to order such a search.
The captain finished his shift at 11 p.m. Feb. 11, and Mammel and Kurtz said there was no supervisor with the rank of lieutenant or above on duty after that in the Abnormal Behavior Observation (ABO) unit in which the jailbreak occurred, despite general orders requiring one.
They said a sergeant and two guards were on duty, one of whom volunteered to work an extended shift.
The attorneys said that while all three have criticized jail conditions, not all are working to elect fired Sheriff's Police SORT Commander Richard Remus as sheriff. They are represented, though, by the same law firm representing Remus in his suit against retiring Sheriff Michael Sheahan seeking reinstatement.
Remus was fired after inmates from the same unit accused him of leading a mass beating six years ago.
Remus is one of several current and former Sheriff's police employees seeking to replace Sheahan, including Sheahan's chief of staff, former legislator Tom Dart.
Attorneys for the suspended guards accused personnel who questioned the three of denying them access to attorneys and of trampling on their Miranda rights. They also repeated accusations made by Remus that ABO inmates have set a series of fires, have disabled extinguishers, have thrown feces and urine at guards, and have otherwise probed the guard staff for weaknesses.
Kurtz accused Sheahan of suspending them in "retribution" for their complaints.
The Sheriff's office issued a brief statement in which it said that the criminal investigation continues, that it won't discuss details of the investigation until it is completed, and won't respond to the accusations made the the attorneys.
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