Fugitive Mom Charged In Michigan Prison Escape

LANSING, Mich. -- A California mother of three arrested 32 years after she fled a Michigan prison on a drug conviction was charged Monday with escape.

Susan LeFevre, 53, is already back in Michigan serving at least 5 1/2 years of her remaining sentence for selling heroin. If convicted of escape she could face probation or another five years in prison.

LeFevre was arrested in April outside her Carmel Valley home. She had served about one year of a 10- to 20-year sentence before climbing a prison fence in 1976 and starting a new life.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, whose jurisdiction covers the suburban Detroit prison from which LeFevre escaped, said Monday that it's admirable that LeFevre made something of her life, but that she must accept responsibility for her escape.

"Inmates must know there is a consequence for escaping prison," Worthy said in a statement. Arrangements were being made to arraign LeFevre on the new charge.

Barbara Klimaszewski, one of LeFevre's attorneys, said she regrets that prosecutors "decided to allocate the time and resources of Wayne County taxpayers to this case. I hope we can achieve a result that's appropriate."

LeFevre was 19 in 1975, when she agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and violation of drug laws in hopes of winning leniency. Instead she was given the maximum sentence for selling about 3 grams of heroin.

LeFevre has said she was threatened by other inmates at the Detroit House of Corrections, now known as the Robert Scott Correctional Facility. One night, her grandfather and another relative agreed to meet her, and LeFevre walked across an open yard, threw her jacket over a barbed wire fence and climbed over. She traveled to California, where she assumed the name Marie Walsh and got married.

Last week, LeFevre asked a Saginaw County judge to set aside her original heroin sentence, arguing that she was given an illegal sentence by a judge who did not factor in that she was a first-time offender.

Her attorneys said that at the time of her sentencing, the circuit court's policy was to give all Saginaw defendants in heroin cases 10 to 20 years, regardless of their individual characteristics or criminal records. The policy later was ruled improper by the Michigan Supreme Court.

While the motion did not specify how long her new sentence should be, Klimaszewski said a first-time offender such as LeFevre pleading guilty to dealing a small amount of drugs likely would get probation under today's law.