Guard Mocked by Escaped Prisoners Found Dead

[mawilson 2,133]

Don't ya just love prison break stories?

Guard Mocked by Escaped Prisoners Is Found Dead

By RICHARD G. JONES

Published: January 3, 2008

ELIZABETH, N.J. — The emotional blows had been landing with increasing frequency for

Rudolph Zurick. In recent months, he mourned the death of his mother, a neighbor said.

Then, in mid-December, Mr. Zurick, a corrections officer at the Union County Jail here,

made the troubling discovery that two inmates had burrowed through a concrete wall in

a daring escape.

If that were not enough, the escaped inmates had left a note that the authorities said

mocked Officer Zurick, signing off with a drawing of a smiley face, the words

“You’re a real pal! Happy Holidays” and a hand with a raised middle finger.

Early on Wednesday, hours before the 40-year-old Officer Zurick was scheduled to meet

with detectives investigating the escape for what his lawyers described as a routine interview,

he was found dead, apparently from suicide, in his central New Jersey home.

“It’s very tragic,” Scott C. Mitzner, one of Officer Zurick’s lawyers, said in a telephone

interview. “Rudy was a perfectionist. I think the pressure did get to him.”

Neighbors and acquaintances said on Wednesday that they believed that Officer Zurick,

who was married with a 4-year-old daughter, was shaken by the death of his mother and

by the embarrassment of the jail escape.

They also suggested that Officer Zurick might have been affected by the insinuation that

he was complicit in the escape — either through laxity or as an accomplice — a suggestion

that investigators have dismissed since the escape on Dec. 15.

The note left by the escaped inmates thanked Officer Zurick “for the tools needed.” But the

Union County prosecutor, Theodore J. Romankow, has repeatedly said since the escape

that investigators believe the note was meant to mock Officer Zurick, who was a guard at

the jail for 15 years.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Mr. Romankow cautioned against drawing inferences

from Officer Zurick’s death.

“This is not a time for speculation but a time for mourning,” he said.

In the meantime, investigators in Mr. Romankow’s office continue to search for the two

inmates, Jose Espinosa, 20, and Otis Blunt, 32.

For weeks, the authorities say, the two men used a length of metal wire and a saucer-size

knob from a water valve to chisel their way through a block of concrete between their cells

and then through an exterior wall of the prison. The men used photos of bikini-clad women

to hide their progress.

After squeezing through a narrow opening in Mr. Espinosa’s cell, the men were able to clamber

across a rooftop and jump a 30-foot barbed-wire fence before making their way to freedom.

In the days after the escape, those close to the investigation said that they believed that the

men had left Elizabeth but were still in New Jersey. But so far the authorities have made little

progress in finding the two.

According to court papers, Mr. Espinosa, a member of the Bloods street gang who was awaiting

sentencing for his role in a 2005 drive-by shooting, has ties to a Newark faction of the gang.

Mr. Blunt was being held in connection with the robbery of a convenience store clerk in 2005.

On Wednesday, friends and neighbors of Officer Zurick held a vigil outside his house on

Luke Street in Sayreville, where rows of ranches and Cape Cod homes overlook Raritan Bay.

George Armstrong, 60, who lives across the street from the home that Officer Zurick shared

with his wife and daughter, said that his neighbor was distraught about the prison escape and

its ramifications for his future as a corrections officer.

“He was pretty upset about that,” Mr. Armstrong said. “He was concerned about what was going

to happen; he was concerned about his job.”

Mr. Armstrong said that Officer Zurick was also jolted by the death of his mother earlier this year.

He and other neighbors said that the innuendo surrounding the escape weighed heavily on the

Zurick household.

Another neighbor, Richard Bonis, said that he knew something was wrong when the Zuricks

skipped the customary Christmas lights display outside their home and welcomed the holidays

in a more modest fashion.

“I thought that was unusual,” said Mr. Bonis, 42.

Indeed, the most visible expression of holiday cheer from the Zuricks’ lavender two-story home

was the occasional sighting of Officer Zurick’s wife, Lisa, accompanying their daughter, Nina,

while the child rode a new pink motorized car.

On Wednesday, neighbors struggled to reconcile that image with the news of Officer Zurick’s

apparent suicide. The authorities said that he died of a gunshot wound to the head, although

Mr. Armstrong said that he did not hear any shots fired on Wednesday. Nor did he notice any

other signs of disruption at the Zurick house. He was first alerted to trouble when police officers

who were routinely canvassing the neighborhood told him what had occurred.

Mr. Mitzner, Officer Zurick’s lawyer, recalled what he said was his client’s spotless record as a

corrections officer and his meticulous attention to detail.

“He was a weight lifter who was obsessive about doing the right amount of repetitions the right

way,” Mr. Mitzner said. “I think the idea that people thought he did something wrong, it made him

very depressed.”

He paused. “I just hope the true story gets out,” he said.

The New York Times

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I was just reading about this. Very sad.

[Nessa 23]

terrible.

[Ban Hammer 13,643]

[Fandango 1,440]

So the stress of his job caused him to make a widow of his wife and make his daughter a partial orphan???

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

So the stress of his job caused him to make a widow of his wife and make his daughter a partial orphan???

People with mental illnesses aren't rational.

[mawilson 2,133]

Let's face it, the guard was totally PWNED.

(Can't believe I actually used this Internet colloquialism.)

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Let's face it, the guard was totally PWNED.

(Can't believe I actually used this Internet colloquialism.)

Ha, you're such a geek!

[JODO 2]

sad

[Sprailenes 47]

This is really off topic, but the men wrote that note? It's very nice penmanship...for a guy.

Oh and wow...shawshank redemption much?

Edited January 3, 2008 by Sprailenes