Inmate captured after escape attempt

A Geiger inmate on a work crew made a dash for freedom Thursday, only to be caught in a new Liberty Lake subdivision after three police departments, a search dog and a helicopter came after him.

Police arrested Scott Gamache, 26, for leaving a work crew that was picking up trash along Molter Road on the west side of Liberty Lake.

“He just dropped his vest and ran off into the woods,” said Spokane Valley police Sgt. Greg Barkley.

About a dozen officers from Liberty Lake, Spokane Valley, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and Geiger Corrections Center quickly staked out the old Holiday Hills area and nearby neighborhoods.

A few residents caught a glimpse of a shirtless man in bright red pants running into the hills.

“He was sizzling,” said Howard Rowley, who lives in Liberty Lake Estates.

Rowley said he saw the inmate run through his neighborhood and partly up the hill before briefly catching his breath and disappearing into the trees.

Shortly after Rowley told police what he had seen, a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter began zooming around the area.

“They help us, we help them,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan. The helicopter is stationed at Felts Field.

It hovered near the Trailhead Golf Course for a while before a police dog found Gamache hiding in an unfinished area of the high-dollar Legacy Ridge subdivision at about 12:30 p.m.

He will likely face a felony second-degree escape charge, police said.

Gamache had been in jail for driving under the influence and was scheduled to be released in mid-April, said Geiger custody manager Brett Sobosky.

Work crews made up of minimum-security inmates from the jail clean roadways, parks and county facilities. Each crew has eight to 10 people, and during the summer there may be as many as nine crews working on a given day, he said.

Last year there were three escape attempts from work crews, he said. Some years there aren’t any.

“It’s pretty rare,” Sobosky said.