Indiana county seeks repayment for police fugitive manhunt

CROWN POINT, Ind. - A northwestern Indiana county is seeking repayment of more than $30,000 from a private transport company for a manhunt police mounted after a fugitive escaped while being extradited from Texas.

The Lake County Commissioners unanimously agreed Wednesday to send REDI Transports a letter seeking reimbursement from the Green Bay, Wisconsin, company for the expenses incurred during the two-week-long manhunt and recapture of Leon Taylor.

As Action 2 News previously reported, Taylor was recaptured in late December after officers found him while searching in neighboring East Chicago.

Taylor had escaped a van stopped in Gary, Indiana on December 14 as an agent with REDI Transports was moving him from Texas via O’Hare International Airport to the Lake County Jail.

The Times of Northwest Indiana reports the letter also seeks repayment of the company’s original charge for transporting the 22-year-old Hammond man from Texas to Lake County, where Taylor is a suspect in a Chicago man’s murder.

Taylor was arrested in Texas on December 2nd. In addition to being a murder suspect, he is also a suspect in five northwest Indiana armed robberies.

22-year-old Antorries Brown, Taylor’s cousin, has been charged with assisting a criminal after authorities say he tried to collect money for his fugitive relative.

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