Idaho Inmate’s ‘Fishing’ Trip Ends In Guatemala Escapee Was Caught Via Internet

On a Sunday morning in September 1985, Leslie Isben Rogge left a note in his Latah County jail cell, “Gone Fishing.”

He walked through a door to the outside opened for him by a jailer and became the first inmate to escape from the Latah County Jail. He remained at large for nearly 11 years.

On May 18, Rogge turned himself in to the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala and thus became the first of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted fugitives taken into custody because of the Internet.

Rogge, 56, made the FBI’s most wanted list in 1990. His picture was placed on the FBI’s home page. Someone surfing the Net this year saw Rogge’s photograph, spotted him in Guatemala and alerted local authorities.

Feeling the pressure of the Guatemalan manhunt, Rogge surrendered to the U.S. government. He is in custody in Florida.

“We still have warrants for his escape in Idaho,” said Jim Benham, U.S. Marshal for the District of Idaho. Rogge may be returned to Idaho to face charges, but “he probably won’t go back to Latah County,” Benham said.

The Rogge case was a colorful chapter in the history of Latah County law enforcement.

Rogge is a career criminal with convictions as diverse as transporting stolen vehicles, selling illegal weapons and drugs and passing bad checks dating back to the early 1960s. He was serving a 25-year federal sentence for bank robberies in Florida when he was extradited to Idaho in 1985 to stand trial for robbing a Post Falls bank.

On the morning of Sept. 29, Robert Halvorsen, a 23-year-old jailer with less than two months experience in Latah County, gave Rogge a brown blazer, dress shirt and slacks, ushered him into a jail recreation room and opened a door leading to the outside. At 10 a.m. he reported Rogge missing.

A day later, Halvorsen told then-Sheriff Ken Buxton that officials should not be worried that there was a U-Haul outside Halvorsen’s apartment. He said his wife had decided to leave him. Halvorsen was arrested in Bremerton a week later driving a U-Haul loaded with personal possessions and accompanied by his wife, Krista.

He was convicted of a charge of abetting an escape, served a short prison sentence and successfully completed probation. At his trial, Halvorsen testified he opened the jail door after two men threatened him and his family if he did not set Rogge free.

Rogge eluded capture several times. About four years ago, marshals missed him by hours in Louisiana.

“We were reasonably close a couple of times, but we never managed to make everything click,” said Benham.

Halvorsen, the jailer, was defended by William Thompson, now Latah County’s prosecutor. Thompson said there still is a warrant in Latah Couty from Rogge’s escape, and he would relish pursuing that case.

“I’ve heard Rogge’s quite a character. I’ve never met him, but, frankly, I think it would be fascinating to meet him and talk to him.”

Moscow attorney D. Ray Barker can attest to Rogge’s raffish charm. He defended him in 1985.

Recalled Barker, “He was charming, intelligent, articulate and entertaining.

“He was just a nice guy that happened to be a bank robber. He took a lot of pride that nobody had ever been hurt in one of his bank robberies.”

Barker keeps Rogge’s wanted poster on display in his office, and if Rogge is returned to Idaho for trial, Barker said he would happily defend him again.

Then there’s this. A few years ago Barker acquired a young dog with a penchant for roaming. The dog’s name? Rogge.

MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: Latah inmate’s ‘fishing’ trip ends