District Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Escape Charge, Caught After Failing to Return to Halfway House

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District Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Escape Charge, Caught After Failing to Return to Halfway House

The following press release was published by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys on Jan. 23, 2018. It is reproduced in full below.

Arres Followed Investigation by U.S. Marshals Service

WASHINGTON - John Abner Caudle, 40, of Washington, D.C., has pled guilty to a federal escape charge following his arrest last summer by the U.S. Marshals Service after failing to return to a halfway house where he had been placed, announced U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu and Robert Turner, United States Marshal for the District of Columbia.

Caudle pled guilty on Jan. 22, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He is to be sentenced on Feb. 26, 2018, by the Honorable Amit P. Mehta.

According to the government’s evidence, Caudle had pled guilty in March 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to a drug offense. In February 2015, upon a finding that Caudle violated the terms of his supervised release, the Honorable Reggie B. Walton sentenced him to a year of imprisonment. The latter part of that sentence was to be served in a halfway house in Southeast Washington. On Sept. 1, 2015, Caudle started his halfway house placement. As a resident of the facility, he was allowed to leave the center in order to go to work. On Nov. 7, 2015, Caudle left the facility, purportedly for work, and did not return.

Per protocol, halfway house staff members contacted area hospitals, law enforcement authorities and the emergency contact number that the defendant provided at the time of his administrative processing into the facility. They determined that he had not been hospitalized or arrested, or was otherwise unable to return to the halfway house. All such checks returned negative, and so Caudle was placed on escape status and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In August of 2017, members of the U.S. Marshals Service learned that Caudle was involved in a motor vehicle accident. That information led to Caudle being tracked to a hotel in the 1700 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW, in downtown Washington. He was arrested there on Aug. 17, 2017, and has remained in custody ever since.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Liu and Marshal Turner commended the work of those who captured Caudle after his escape. They expressed appreciation for the efforts of those who worked in the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including Paralegal Specialists Jeannette Litz and Teesha Tobias and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Walters for their valuable efforts in the prosecution of this case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emory V. Cole, who prosecuted the case.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys

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