Escape plan
Has everybody gone crazy. Craig Titus is going to walk out of the Las Vegas slammer a free man. I've never seen the DA & Fuzz try so hard to get a guy for trash, than in this case. Their murder case must be pitiful.
Titus subject of escape investigation By GLENN PUIT
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Bodybuilder Craig Titus was the subject of an attempted escape investigation at the Clark County Detention Center in October after he approached an officer in an attempt to get his hands on a police uniform, the director of the jail said Monday.
Mikel Holt, deputy chief of detention services at the jail, said Titus approached an officer at the jail and asked how he could get a special uniform that police use for tactical responses. Titus told the officer he didn't want a traditional corrections uniform because "he didn't think he would fit in it."
The episode resulted in detention center officials placing Titus in administrative segregation more than a month ago. When Holt was asked Monday why he thought Titus would have sought out such a uniform, he said there was "an attempt to leave us without the proper release paperwork."
Titus' attorney, Marc Saggese, confirmed Monday that Titus did ask an officer about the uniform, but he said Titus was joking.
"He says it is a running joke in the jail ... 'Let me get one of those uniforms,'" Saggese said. "He was absolutely kidding."
Saggese also said jail officials knew Titus was joking, but they are "now using it as an excuse to pick on him."
Titus, 42, and his fitness champion wife, Kelly Ryan, 34, are charged with murder in the death of their personal assistant, Melissa James. They are accused of killing the 28-year-old woman, then setting her remains on fire in the trunk of Ryan's Jaguar in the desert off state Route 160 in December 2005.
Both are in custody at the detention center and are scheduled to go to trial in April.
On Saturday, the Review-Journal reported on another incident involving Titus at the Detention Center approximately two weeks ago. In a letter sent by Titus to Saggese, Titus said he was removed from his cell by officers, strapped to a chair, had goggles placed over his face, and was then forced to lie in a cell at gunpoint during a "code orange" at the jail. Titus said he was stripped naked, and that two female corrections officers later observed him "butt naked" as they checked his vital signs. Titus said the incident has since caused him to fear for his life and given him nightmares.
"I'm very scared right now," Titus wrote in the letter. "For the first time in my life, I'm actually terrified. I need your help, my friend. But I'm also scared to even tell you in fear they may do something else to me."
Holt confirmed Monday the incident happened, but said proper procedure was followed. Holt said the episode was triggered by a man climbing onto a rooftop at the detention center and tampering with air ducts, and the location was a few stories directly above Titus' jail cell.
"They were going on the assumption we had some kind of security breach," Holt said.
As a precaution, Titus was removed from his cell.
"They followed their security procedures for a high security move with an unknown situation," Holt said.
Holt said it was later determined the man tampering with the air ducts was engaged in vandalism, and the incident was not an attempt aimed at helping Titus escape. He also said the interactions with Titus on the day in question were videotaped as proof that proper procedure was followed.
"Everything is done for a reason," Holt said, adding, "We videotape all this and we also have medical take a look. ... You don't videotape things you are trying to hide."
