Design flaws blamed on OCCC escape

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

A state prison official today blamed poor construction and design as a factor in the second escape this month from an O'ahu prison facility.

Two women inmates — Michelle Padilla, 27, and Kimberly Takata, 33 — awaiting trial for drug and burglary offenses, respectively, were still at large today after escaping last night from the O'ahu Community Correctional Center with the assistance of some fellow inmates and outside help from two people.

Last night's escape occurred 24 days after Albert Batalona, Warren Elicker and David Scribner escaped from Halawa's high-security prison. That escape that triggered a six-day manhunt that involved hundreds of police, state and federal personnel. The three men broke through an interior wall and squeezed through a plumbing space into an unlocked storage room on the floor below their cells before fleeing from the main gate area which was unguarded.

Padilla and Takata escaped through an unsecured door of a module, which is set up like a dormitory, at 7:50 p.m., said acting state Public Safety Director Jim Propotnick.

A police report said the escapees were helped by a disturbance in the module staged to distract the guards. The two women made to the Pu'uhale Road side of the facility where a section of the fence had been cut and two people were waiting in a car.

The pair got into a black Camaro that sped south on Pu'uhale and was last seen heading west on Nimitz Highway. OCCC warden Francis Sequeira said a woman and a man were waiting in the car.

Today, officials conducted an inspection of OCCC's perimeter fence and repairs were being made where necessary.

"We're hardening things up," Propotnick said while observing that escapes are made easier because of poor design and construction at prison facilities. "But it takes money and staffing."

Sequeira said prison officials were tipped by Honolulu police that an escape was in progress. He said guards responded immediately, but when they got to the scene the car was speeding away.

Padilla and Takata do not have violent criminal convictions but Sequira warned that "at this point they are desperate and could possibly be dangerous."

Sequeira said the escape was planned because the two women could not have broken out without outside help. He said someone had to help them pry a fence open along the Pu'uhale Road side of the prison.

"It looks like they made it through the side of the fence line," Sequeira said. "They managed to pry it open with assistance, they couldn't do that themselves, and managed to squeeze through."

Rod Romero lives across the street from OCCC and said he heard a car door slam and then the screeching of tires. He said cars often speed past the prison and he at first did not think anything out of the ordinary was going on.

As the Camaro was speeding off, Romero said he saw the car and then he could hear many of the women from inside OCCC screaming.

Advertiser staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.