Wednesday, November 10, 1999
Hospital tab a ticket to freedom
Ariz. authorities didn't want the bill
BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — An accused drug dealer wanted in three states escaped police custody at a hospital because authorities did not want to get stuck with his medical bills.
Even though Dudley Caldwell remains wanted in Phoenix on drug and weapons charges, officials there declined Friday to have him held for them because he was in University Hospital at the time. But Fort Mitchell police, who chased Mr. Caldwell down Friday after he fled during a routine traffic stop, didn't know that.
So as they took their time Friday preparing their case — they said they found 16 pounds of marijuana, some cocaine and $120,000 in Mr. Caldwell's hotel room — somebody wheeled their suspect right out the hospital door. Nurses and doctors objected to his leaving, for medical reasons, but no one could stop him, the hospital said.
“We absolutely would've done anything that we needed to do to keep him in custody,” Fort Mitchell Detective Tom Loos said. “But we were not armed with all the information.”
Mr. Caldwell, 49, is again on the loose, but this time contending with a broken hip sustained when he rammed his Mustang into a utility pole as he fled police about 4 a.m. Friday. His wife, Genevieve, 37, was not as lucky as her husband. She was treated at St. Elizabeth Medical Center, then taken to the Kenton County Jail.
Fort Mitchell officers worked out a plan with the Kenton County Sheriff's Office to have a deputy watch Mr. Caldwell while he was at St. Elizabeth, Detective Loos said. But when he was transferred to University Hospital across the state line, Kentucky authorities no longer had jurisdiction over him, he said. That's why they relied on University of Cincinnati police and the outstanding Phoenix warrant.
But money got in the way. Bill Fitzgerald, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Phoenix, said his office simply has too many
wanted people on its rolls to accept jurisdiction over them while they're hospitalized. Because many, as their cases proceed through the courts, are deemed indigent, the agency prosecuting them often gets stuck with the bills.
“In other words, it becomes a "He's your indigent, not our indigent' kind of thing,” he said.
His office left orders, he said, with UC police to arrest Mr. Caldwell immediately upon his release. What happened after that isn't clear.
Not only was Detective Loos not notified that the Phoenix warrant would not be keeping Mr. Caldwell, he said he didn't know until Saturday afternoon that Mr. Caldwell left the hospital at 7 p.m. Friday.
Hospital spokeswoman Pat Samson said a Northern Kentucky law enforcement official probably should have come with Mr. Caldwell to the Corryville hospital and then hired security to guard him. Detective Loos said he would have quickly gotten a warrant for Mr. Caldwell's arrest if he had known it was necessary.
The hospital is accustomed to placing “holders” on patients for police agencies, Mrs. Samson said — it does it every day. But because none existed for Mr. Caldwell, he was not held. The medical professionals who tried to stop him from leaving, she said, likely did not know he was wanted. Prosecutors in Phoenix definitely want to get their hands on Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Fitzgerald said, particularly because of a 1998 case in which he is accused of possession of heroin and marijuana.
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