When a convicted felon switched ID bracelets with a fellow inmate scheduled for release and walked out of the Clark County Jail on Thursday, no one immediately noticed. Nor did they notice when the men switched cells prior to the escape.
Michael Diontae Johnson simply put on the other inmate’s clothes, signed the other inmate’s name on the paperwork and was a free man, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court.
Johnson, 30, was serving a 24-year sentence for kidnapping and aggravated assault in Arizona but had been transferred to Clark County to stand trial on a domestic violence case. He is now additionally facing a charge of second-degree escape, court records show.
Johnson tricked jailers into mistakenly discharging him after he swapped identities with a fellow inmate, 19-year-old LaQuon Carson Boggs of Portland, and walked out of the jail about 8:30 a.m Thursday. The affidavit does not say how or why Boggs got involved in Johnson’s escape.
Jail staff noticed Johnson missing during the lunch hour, when they conducted a head count. Law enforcement have been searching for him since.
Undersheriff Mike Cooke told The Columbian on Friday that he didn’t want to disclose how and where deputies were searching, but he said that the hunt is active and ongoing.
Johnson, who had lived in Portland, is black, 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. Cooke said Johnson and Boggs look very similar.
The sheriff’s office had said Boggs was not released as originally scheduled, but he was not listed on the jail roster as of Saturday. Cooke said last week that it was too early to tell if Boggs will face charges. Boggs was convicted in March of second-degree robbery and was given a 150-day sentence, according to Columbian archives.
Jail escape
A corrections officer called in to the jail pod about 8:15 a.m., directing three inmates to come out of their cells for release. Johnson came out of Boggs’ cell wearing Boggs’ wristband. The inmates recited their dates of birth, and the officer checked their wristbands to confirm their identities. They were then sent to another officer for processing, the affidavit said.
That officer also questioned the inmates, during which time Johnson again gave Boggs’ information. He was wearing the other inmate’s clothing and signed Boggs’ name for receiving property and money, according to court documents.
Jailers realized that Johnson was missing and that Boggs was still in custody about 12:45 p.m. It’s unclear how long the men had switched their identities, but Johnson assumed Boggs’ identity long enough to successfully escape, court records said.
“There’s no threat to the public that we’re aware of from him specifically, just the increased level of concern that he’s a fugitive that very much desires not to get caught,” Cooke previously told The Columbian. “Of course we worry about the risk of the law enforcement officers who take him back into custody.”
Jail chief Ric Bishop said in a press release that the jail is about six weeks away from implementing a biometric screening tool that would have prevented this type of escape. After installation, the system will collect inmates’ fingerprints as they’re booked into the jail, then will match those fingerprints before the inmates are released.
Criminal history
Johnson has escaped from custody once before. In 2008, he was imprisoned at the Olympic Corrections Center for less than a week on drug violations and firearms possession convictions when he was found to be missing from his living quarters.
In that escape, two people had picked Johnson up and drove him to Vancouver, though police received information that he had then taken a bus to Nevada. He was arrested days later at a bus station in Reno.
Johnson’s Clark County case stems from a domestic violence incident in March 2014 when he allegedly made threats and assaulted a woman, court records show.
He posted bail in that case, but then did not show up to court and was arrested later that year in Arizona for kidnapping and aggravated assault, for which he was convicted, according to court documents.
In the Clark County case, he is accused of bail jumping, two counts of harassment-death threats, intimidating a witness and fourth-degree assault, all domestic violence crimes. He is scheduled to go to trial in June.
