San Diego, CA (The Weekly Vice) -- Susan Lefevre is a typical 53 year old mother and wife. There's just one minor detail about Lefevre that is not so typical. She has been running from the law after escaping prison 32 years ago.
Now, Lefevre's past has finally caught up to her. Responding to an anonymous tip, the absconding mother and wife was outed and arrested after years of living a double life.
Lefevre was arrested on drug charges in the early 70's. Growing up in Michigan, Lefevre says she fell into the wrong crowd when she was 19 years old. "There were just all these different drugs. [I] experimented and got involved in the wrong crowd," says Lafevre.
Lefevre was later convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 10 - 20 years in prison. Lafevre said that she expected to get probation. "So it was a couple hundred dollars worth of drugs a transaction that my friend did, and I was just there in the car."
She decided to 'mitigate' her own sentence and escaped by climbing over the fence and flee from the Robert Scott Correctional facility in Detroit about a year into her sentence. "My grandfather was waiting a few blocks away. I thought they were going to shoot me, but I didn't care, I just needed to get out there, it was a very wrong thing to do," said Lefevre.
After her escape, Lefevre changed her name to Marie Day and moved to California. She got married, changed her name to Marie Walsh and raised three kids with her husband Alan in an affluent neighborhood. When confronted with her real identity, Lefevre admitted who she was but told police her family had no idea she was a fugitive.
According to the U.S. Marshals Service, police became aware of Lefevre's whereabouts on a tip that she was living in California under the name Marie Walsh. Authorities were able to verify Lefevre's identity by matching her thumb print records with that on her Marie Walsh driver's license.
Lefevre was arrested and booked into the Las Colinas Women's Detention Center while awaiting extradition back to Michigan where she will serve out the remainder of her sentence.
"I've been through 30 years of paying off a debt," Lefevre says. "I hope that there is some consideration that I did turn my life around, that's a very good way of putting it."
The Weekly Vice Opinion:
This story is upsetting on a few accounts.
First, it highlights a serious inconsistency in our laws for establishing sentencing guidelines that fit the crime. A 19 year old girl is caught up in the wrong crowd and gets sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Alternatively, we have teachers raping kids who either serve a matter of months in jail, or no jail time at all.
While we agree, the woman should have had some kind of consequence for her actions, is society going to get a return on its investment in this case? She'll go from being a contributing, taxpaying citizen to becoming a tax burden that taxpayers will support until the woman becomes an immobile 70 year old. At that point she will be qualified for government retirement benefits. Basically this woman will be supported by taxpayers until she dies.
Meanwhile, our judges are letting repeat child molesters and pedophiles out of jail after multiple offenses, as we reported on yesterday.
If anything shows how whacked our laws are, this story does.
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
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18 comments:
THIS lady has lead a normal life for over thirty years'so why bother her now.If all she is guility of is a minor drug transaction over thirty years ago,let it go.We will end up spending more money on keeping her in prison than what it is worth.If you want to do something to her give her probation and let it go.
Don't know the full story except for what i have read in the new's.I see no real reason why this lady should serve time for a drug transaction that happened twenty years ago.She has keep herself clean for over thirty years so why bother her now.
Yes, Marie Walsh has lived a normal life for over 30 years but Susan Marie LeFevre still should be punished for the crimes she did as Susan when she was 19 years old. She also committed over crimes by taking on a false name & id. Don't forget she did escape from prison. Whether we see her sentence of 10-20 years as fair/right or wrong, you don't escape. You appeal the sentence or hope for a pardon but you don't escape.
I'd rather see her make financial restitution for all the helicopters and time spent trying to catch her along with probabtion, but this woman isn't a saint. What about the sheer lack of responsbility of having kids who depended upon her when she could be imprisoned at any moment? What if her kids were babies? Seems very selfish to me. Moreover, sounds like it was heroin...not just selling a couple joints.
The story, as posted here, omits pertinent details found elsewhere: that Susan Lefevre was selling heroin on a regular basis, even making $2K/week profit, with ties to powerful drug dealers in Detroit. If this is true, she endangered the lives of others with her reckless behavior.
I agree she has proven she can change her ways, but nevertheless, ought to serve some of her sentence, perhaps being given early parole eligibility. If not, our justice system loses credibility. There must be consistency in sentencing and impartial punishments enacted, else what's to prevent an escapee from later pleading mercy for good behavior after escaping? Releasing her without punishment is sending the wrong message.
To the people who are complaining that she was arrested for a drug charge so long ago, hey, learn to read. She wasn't arrested this time for the drug charge. She was arrested for escaping prison, where she was sentenced over 30 years ago when she was arrested over 30 years ago.
She was a fugitive from the law, plain and simple. Now she's not.
While I have sympathy for her kids, I have none for her because she *knew* that she was a fugitive and that she could be caught. And think about it: She moved to California where they require a fingerprint for a drivers license? I know for a fact that they've been doing that since at least 1993, it's been at least 15 years and she still stayed there?
Many other states don't fingerprint, she couldn't have moved? Jeeze, she deserved to get caught simply for the stupidity!
The purpose of the justice system is to serve the interests of the community. This doesn't.
It unnecessarily burdens the community with extra taxes to cover the loss of hers and pay to keep her in custody. And why is this? So that some nebulous 'they' can proclaim, "We always get our (wo)man!"
This doesn't make the justice system appear strong and competent, it makes it look petty and spiteful.
It is ridiculous how lop sided our justice system is.
Yes she is guilty of a crime and of escaping prison. She has lead a clean healthy life and is a mother and wife. Have her pay fines or do community service of some type, don't ruin her family which may then lead to others in her family suffering, maybe they will become so distraught that they turn to drugs one day and are part of the vicsious cycle.
Maybe have her counsel, work with troubled female youths as community service or with recovering addicts.
Tim
Lynn, Ma
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. If Susan were poor, ugly, black, and male, she'd have been run to ground years ago and incarcerated for the maximum time allowed. Dealing heroin (death) is no small potatos in my book. Throw 'em both at her (the book and potatos).
to SUPPORT SUSAN LE FEVRE, AND SIGN A PETITION REQUESTING COMMENCEMENT FROM GOVERNOR GRANHOLM, PLEASE VISIT
WWW.FREESUSANLEFEVRE.COM
Susan was not a typcial house wife. She was a women with a prison record, and on the run commiting fraud for 32 year's. How about her using a dead lady's social seceraty number for 28 year's? That is not a typical house wife. Sorry I disagree
So who is typical? You can't even go out on a limb enough to use a simple screen name anonymous. Perhaps you're a closet nympho - how would we know?
"anonymous tip"
She made the mistake so many fugitives do - she kept in contact with her hometown.
A (former) friend or relative, jealous of her wealthy lifestyle, decided to turn her in.
If you walk away like she did, don't make contact back home.
If you do, don't let them know where you are living.
If she had told everyone back home she was living in a state that doesn't fingerprint for driver's licenses, she'd still be free to quietly live out her life.
"I've heard her story that she just happened to be with a person who was selling heroin," said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. "The file we have is very different."
READ MORE• SIDEBAR: Corrections official: Michigan escapee Susan LeFevre could serve 5-plus years
• RELATED STORY: Former Michigan prison escapee Susan Marie LeFevre hopes for mercy after 32 years on the lam
• RELATED STORY: Thomas Township woman nabbed after spending 32 years as a fugitiveLeFevre's crimes likely caused many and serious ripples in the criminal underworld. he said. A state trooper testified LeFevre was a ringleader of a drug-trafficking operation, Marlan said.
"She had people working for her. She was making a large profit," Marlan said. "She wore nice clothing and rented an apartment. When she was arrested, she had $600 in cash, paraphernalia for cutting heroin, and photographs that proved she was acquainted with people higher up in the Saginaw drug world.
"When she was sentenced to do 10 to 20 years for a person with no prior history... those things don't mesh with someone (who was a small time drug dealer).
"The state police that did the investigation estimated she was making $2,000 a week when she was arrested. That's $104,000 a year. That's good money now, imagine what it was in 1974."
At that time, minimum wage was $2 an hour. People working a 40-hour week would have made $80 a week before taxes -- or $4,160 a year before taxes.
"Back then, Saginaw had a major heroin problem," Marlan said. "All this leads to violent crime -- shootings, murders... This sentence to a heroin dealer was an attempt to clean up the city and stop the violence."
Although her defense attorney at the time, Nicholas R. Trojan III, asked the judge for probation, the investigating trooper, Michael Robinson, said he did not believe probation would help her change. The prosecutor recommended 10 years. The judge gave her 10 to 20 years.
Tales of LeFevre escaping by climbing a prison fence to meet waiting relatives are unsubstantiated, Marlan said.
"Most minimum security facilities (such as the one LeFevre was in) didn't even have fences," Marlan said.
"Her file said she was on work release because she was not a management problem, and that day she was heading to a work assignment at a clinic -- I believe it was somewhere on the prison grounds. She had a pass at 6:30 a.m. and by 7:30 a.m. the people at the clinic called to say she had not reported for work.
"Her official report listed her as a walk-away. If she scaled any fence it likely would have said something else. Either way, it's an escape."
State officials will house LeFevre at the Scott Correctional Facility along 5 Mile in Plymouth Township after her extradition, Marlan said.
"I've heard her story that she just happened to be with a person who was selling heroin," said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. "The file we have is very different."
READ MORE• SIDEBAR: Corrections official: Michigan escapee Susan LeFevre could serve 5-plus years
• RELATED STORY: Former Michigan prison escapee Susan Marie LeFevre hopes for mercy after 32 years on the lam
• RELATED STORY: Thomas Township woman nabbed after spending 32 years as a fugitiveLeFevre's crimes likely caused many and serious ripples in the criminal underworld. he said. A state trooper testified LeFevre was a ringleader of a drug-trafficking operation, Marlan said.
"She had people working for her. She was making a large profit," Marlan said. "She wore nice clothing and rented an apartment. When she was arrested, she had $600 in cash, paraphernalia for cutting heroin, and photographs that proved she was acquainted with people higher up in the Saginaw drug world.
"When she was sentenced to do 10 to 20 years for a person with no prior history... those things don't mesh with someone (who was a small time drug dealer).
"The state police that did the investigation estimated she was making $2,000 a week when she was arrested. That's $104,000 a year. That's good money now, imagine what it was in 1974."
At that time, minimum wage was $2 an hour. People working a 40-hour week would have made $80 a week before taxes -- or $4,160 a year before taxes.
"Back then, Saginaw had a major heroin problem," Marlan said. "All this leads to violent crime -- shootings, murders... This sentence to a heroin dealer was an attempt to clean up the city and stop the violence."
Although her defense attorney at the time, Nicholas R. Trojan III, asked the judge for probation, the investigating trooper, Michael Robinson, said he did not believe probation would help her change. The prosecutor recommended 10 years. The judge gave her 10 to 20 years.
Tales of LeFevre escaping by climbing a prison fence to meet waiting relatives are unsubstantiated, Marlan said.
"Most minimum security facilities (such as the one LeFevre was in) didn't even have fences," Marlan said.
"Her file said she was on work release because she was not a management problem, and that day she was heading to a work assignment at a clinic -- I believe it was somewhere on the prison grounds. She had a pass at 6:30 a.m. and by 7:30 a.m. the people at the clinic called to say she had not reported for work.
"Her official report listed her as a walk-away. If she scaled any fence it likely would have said something else. Either way, it's an escape."
State officials will house LeFevre at the Scott Correctional Facility along 5 Mile in Plymouth Township after her extradition, Marlan said.
"Yes she is guilty of a crime and of escaping prison. She has lead a clean healthy life and is a mother and wife. Have her pay fines or do community service of some type, don't ruin her family which may then lead to others in her family suffering, maybe they will become so distraught that they turn to drugs one day and are part of the viscious cycle."
It does not matter if she lead a 'clean' life. Really she didn't if she was using someone else's SS# for almost 3 decades! She still had a debt to pay to society and she never did.
The purpose behind the system is to rehabilitate so that these people don't do it again. Given that, she never had the chance to prove that she was 'ok' and had learned something. She proved the opposite by walking away from a prison and now she is being rewarded for doing so. They might as well let everyone go free!
My mother is doing time for something she honestly didn't mean to do but yet she was willing to accept any amount of time that came her way. So to make this fair do you think they're going to free my mother because the accident she was involved in wasn't intentional? I don't think so! Instead of whining about it, my mom is doing her time. As far as it tearing a family apart, no it kind of brings you closer. My mother leaves behind a 12 year old daughter who is doing just fine with her mother being gone. As long as these kids are raised properly, they have no reason to go to drugs and or alcohol!
I say leave her a** in there where she belongs with all of the other criminals. Did anyone ever think that the only reason she lead a quiet life was so that she wouldn't get caught? Did anyone ever think that since shes been caught and is going to be released that she may decide to go back to her old ways since everything is out in the open?
Way to go Michigan!
I say anyone bitching about her is a convicted felon themselves! Get a job pay your taxes and stop bitching! We got bigger problems with Obama in office!
I really don't understand the comment "She should still have to serve her sentence". The sentence that was supposed to be probation for cooperating? The sentence that if it was given today would be probation? What an undeniable redneck comment. I put this right up there with George Bush allowing the execution of the lady in Texas when he was going to run for president. That lady should never have been executed but was to show Bush's stance on crime. The crime has to fit the punishment. This lady made it up for her crime by contributing to the tax base for 32 years instead of costing it. Never did she get into any trouble again, which as to the original sentence was supposed to be probation, she fulfilled with flying colors. So please, before you come up with another redneck comment like that pull the confederate flag out of your a#* and do some reading first.
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