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Who's guarding the prisoners? Officers appear to just watch as inmate escapes car

Security camera video obtained exclusively by WWL Louisiana shows the moment Curtis Tassin bolted from the officers.

Mike Perlstein / WWL Louisiana Investigator

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Published: 5:45 PM CST February 1, 2024
Updated: 6:37 PM CST February 1, 2024

Based on two bold escapes from state juvenile detention centers, Curtis Tassin had been dubbed the Houdini of juvenile inmates by corrections officials.

But when the teenager fled a third time last May, escaping from two state probation officers, the actions – or lack of action – by those officers has raised serious alarms.

WWL Louisiana was there May 31 shortly after Tassin, then 17, escaped during a prisoner transfer at the city's Juvenile Justice Intervention Center in the St. Bernard neighborhood. A woman saw him discard his restraint belt in a neighbor's yard.

“Saw him chuck like this big leather belt,” the woman said.

It was a WWL Louisiana news crew that found the handcuffs that were supposed to be secured to the belt and around Tassin's wrists.

The discarded restraints that marked the trail of Tassin’s escape would have been just as easy to find by the two officers transporting him.

But based on security camera video obtained exclusively by WWL Louisiana, those officers made no attempt to track Tassin as he bolted the moment one of the officers opened the door of the transport car. In fact, the video shows the officers barely even looking in Tassin’s direction. 

Credit: WWL Louisiana

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