The Denver Sheriff’s Department is reviewing courtroom security after a shackled prisoner jumped from the window of a third-floor courtroom Wednesday.
A deputy was standing in Judge Doris Burd’s courtroom near the door leading to a hallway when Josephus Haynes, 41, smashed through the window and fell about 40 feet to a steel grate below.
Haynes, who is homeless, remains in critical but stable condition at Denver Health Medical Center.
“Deputies must position themselves in the courtroom in a way to prevent the normal egress in the courtroom, and the normal egress would not be the third-floor window,” Denver Sheriff’s Capt. Frank Gale said today.
The sheriff’s department might change the way deputies are stationed in the court after reviewing the incident at the Denver City and County Building.
Haynes was about 12 feet from the closed window, his legs shackled together and cuffs on his wrists.
Burd asked him to come forward to be advised of the charges.
“He was at the podium, and she was talking to him when he suddenly turned and went out,” Gale said.
Haynes took two or three quick steps and dived through the quarter-inch glass head-first.
“Shackles are designed in a way that if you have never been in them before, you will have a hard time walking. But people who have been in and out of the system learn to walk in them very well and can have short bursts of speed,” Gale said.
Haynes was arrested the night of April 30 after an attack on a man at a bus stop at Colfax Avenue and Downing Street. He gave the Denver homeless shelter Samaritan House as his address.
According to a police report of the incident, Haynes was riding a bicycle and wearing a reflective vest when he approached the victim.
“The victim asked, ‘Do I know you?’ The suspect, later identified as Josephus Haynes replied, ‘Yeah, you owe my sister 25 (cents).’
“Suspect then forcefully shoved the victim into the bus and down to the ground,” the report said.
The unnamed victim required stitches in his forehead and elbow.
Haynes was booked several hours later and had been in jail since. There was no indication in the paperwork filed at the jail that he might be mentally ill, Gale said.
“We aren’t given specific medical history so if he had a psychological workup we wouldn’t know” unless the prisoner told jail guards, Gale said.
Like all prisoners admitted to the Denver County Jail, Haynes saw a nurse shortly after arriving.
The nurse reviews medical records of inmates who have been through the system before. The medical staff issues a precaution to jailers if there is a medical or psychological problem that they should be aware of, Gale said.
Haynes has a lengthy police record dating to March 1987, when he was arrested for making a false report. His offenses include trespassing, disturbing the peace and urinating in public, second- and third-degree assault, parole violation and larceny.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
