HILLSBORO, Ore. (KGW) — A routine out-of-custody probation hearing in Washington County court turned into a spectacle on Monday when the defendant abruptly ran out of the courtroom.
The incident happened after the presiding judge at the hearing determined that defendant Jamie Regalado-Pina was under the influence, a violation of his probation. The judge decided that the 34-year-old should be taken into custody.
“At that time, court staff notified us, our court security, the individual needed to be taken into custody, and we sent a deputy to that courtroom,” said Sgt. Danny DiPietro, spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
As the deputy walked in one door of the courtroom, Regalado-Pina darted out another. Security cameras captured his run away from the hearing.
Authorities said Regalado-Pina ran out of the courthouse and right into a parked car. A detective who was driving by at the time, listening to the call on his radio, jumped out and took the man into custody.
“He was checked out at a local hospital, had very minor injuries, and he’s now in the Washington County Jail,” DiPietro said.
Regalado-Pina’s flight calls to mind another recent incident involving Edi Villalobos, who bolted out of a Washington County courtroom in late February.
“He was able to run away and we were able to get him back within a few hours,” DiPietro said.
Although the two incidents unfolded just weeks apart, they are very different, DiPietro added.
Villalobos was on trial for murder and bolted right after deputies took off his restraints, meaning he escaped while already in custody and with deputies nearby. Regalado-Pina, on the other hand, was not in custody.
“He was on probation,” DiPietro said. “He came to the probation hearing on his own accord. He was in front of the judge and when the judge remanded him, he made a decision to run.”
Regardless, DiPietro said the public can expect changes following the incidents.
“What we’re doing is we’re having conversations — and they’re already taking place — between our court security unit, the judges, the courts, to try and figure out the best way to orchestrate these incidents in the future.”
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