Talk about America's Least Wanted.
Willie Parker may be a desperado, but not exactly a dangerous one.
"We didn't put all our tactical gear on and bust down the door or anything," said Deputy U.S. Marshal Brandon Taylor, who helped bring Parker in. "We didn't put him in handcuffs."
No, at 81, and, as one news account described him, half "paralyzed and twisted by a stroke," Parker didn't have another escape in him.
Forty-three years ago, he might have escaped from a prison camp on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but by last week, when he was found in North Carolina, it was pretty much all he could do to get out of bed, let his home health nurse put some pants on over the boxers he was wearing and be escorted to jail.
The law finally caught up with Willie Parker, but why it even bothered is a mystery. He'll have to go before a judge for an extradition hearing and could be brought back here to serve the 29 years he apparently owes the state on a 1950s-era armed-robbery charge.
Seems like someone should just strap one of those monitoring devices on his ankle and save everyone a lot of trouble.
Sgt. Arthur Betts, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, said it's not up to the police to decide who will or won't be arrested, if there's an outstanding warrant for them. While refusing to give too many details on the pursuit of Parker, he said that the state police received information on his whereabouts, contacted the Department of Corrections about the details of his imprisonment and escape and then asked officials in North Carolina to arrest him.
"His was one of many outstanding warrants," Betts said. "He wasn't singled out in any way."
Betts said the state police had 84 "re-take" warrants as of January - for people wanted for escaping prison or for parole violations - and as of earlier this month had closed out 12 of them.
DOC spokesman Mark Vernarelli said it was quite the research project for the department's "Commitment Office" to retrieve Parker's records, which he notes were "written or typed on a typewriter eight governors ago," long before the advent of computerized recordkeeping.
Parker is currently incarcerated at the Sampson County, N.C., jail until a decision is made on whether he will be extradited to Maryland to finish up his self-shortened prison term. His current jailers don't seem too enthusiastic about keeping the frail prisoner.
