Columbia attorney takes precautions as search for escaped prisoner continues
A state prisoner who has escaped twice has put a well-known Columbia attorney, whose testimony put the man in prison, and Richland County deputies on high alert.
Jimmy Causey, 46, escaped Wednesday afternoon from a maximum-security prison in the Lowcountry.
“Naturally, there’s anxiety. This is the guy who robbed me, my wife and my daughter,” defense attorney Jack Swerling said. “We feel quite comfortable with the steps that have been taken. Everybody is secure,” he said of efforts by law enforcement to keep him and his family safe.
“This is a very dangerous individual,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “We are operating on the assumption he may be headed this way, but there’s no telling where he will go. We are working with the family.”
Causey was serving a life sentence for kidnapping, armed robbery and first-degree burglary in addition to other crimes at Lieber Correctional Institution when he escaped Wednesday, the state Corrections Department said in announcing a manhunt.
On June 28, 2004, Causey and another man took Swerling and his family hostage at the Swerlings’ lakeside home in the Spring Valley subdivision. The two men thought a rich lawyer would have lots of cash in the house but they were wrong. After binding their hostages with duct tape and ransacking the house, they made off with only a little money and a Palm Pilot.
One of the first calls corrections officials made about Wednesday’s escape from the prison in Ridgeville in Dorchester County was to Swerling. Swerling said when he got the call, he took immediate precautions.
Officials at Lieber determined Causey could not be found around 1:55 p.m., said Sommer Sharpe, spokeswoman for the agency.
Lieber houses more than 1,200 inmates. It’s also where the agency holds its death row inmates, though executions are carried out at the Broad River Capital Punishment Facility in Columbia.
Causey has escaped from custody before. In 2005, while serving time at Broad River Correctional Institution, Causey hid in a Dumpster that was carried off by a trash truck. Another inmate had helped him dupe correctional officers by making dummies out of clothes and toilet paper.
With another inmate, Causey rode the trash truck until they jumped off on Percival Road. They dumped their clothes and got a ride to the Leesburg Road exit on Interstate 77. That’s where Causey’s ex-girlfriend spotted him, and called her father, who reported the men to Corrections.
Causey and the second inmate were caught two days later at a Jasper County hotel after a pizza delivery woman recognized them and called police.
This story was originally published July 5, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Columbia attorney takes precautions as search for escaped prisoner continues."