Juvenile offender escapes

Shawnee County sheriff's deputies combed the county courthouse Tuesday after a 15-year-old boy juvenile offender, who had been brought to Topeka for a yearly in-person review hearing, escaped from custody.

The boy, whose name wasn't released, remained on the loose Tuesday night, but authorities said he wasn't dangerous. The boy had been brought to court Tuesday morning from a group home in Goddard, just west of Wichita, and escaped shortly before his hearing, said Capt. Rick Hladky, sheriff's department spokesman.

The boy escaped about 10 a.m. Tuesday, Hladky said, when an employee with Security Transport Services left him alone for an unknown amount of time. When the employee returned, he found the boy missing, Hladky said.

Security Transport Services is a private business that escorts people to court appearances throughout the state.

Dina Hales, deputy director of Shawnee County Community Corrections, said the STS employee had told authorities that the boy had escaped after he asked to use the restroom.

Tuesday's hearing was scheduled to evaluate the boy's placement and progress at the group home, Hales said. The escape, Hale said, likely was the result of the boy's lack of knowledge about the routine hearing.

"He probably thought it was going to be worse than it really was," she said.

Authorities searched the courthouse and the surrounding area for a few hours but halted the search when the boy wasn't found. Hladky said an attempt-to-locate was issued to area law enforcement, but no active search was under way Tuesday night.

The boy, who Hales said was originally from northeast Kansas, had been convicted of misdemeanor theft.

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