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Deputy beaten, but jailbreak foiled
©Associated Press
January 14, 2003
FORT MYERS -- Three teen inmates have been charged with trying to kill a Lee County sheriff's deputy during an escape attempt.
Juan Daniel Figueroa and Joshua Underwood, both 17, are accused of jumping Deputy William D. Lusk as he entered the cellblock, beating him, handcuffing him and taking his uniform. Inmate Mateo Delacruz, 17, is accused of helping lock the injured deputy in a cell Saturday night.
Lusk, 19, was in good condition Monday at Lee Memorial Hospital.
Figueroa, Underwood and Delacruz are charged, among other things, with attempted felony murder of a law enforcement officer, criminal conspiracy, escape, false imprisonment and resisting/obstructing with violence.
All three were put in solitary confinement at the Lee County Jail.
Figueroa was jailed last summer on a premeditated murder charge. Delacruz and Underwood were jailed in November on charges of escape and battery on a probation officer.
The Sheriff's Office said Figueroa and Underwood hid from Lusk after he ordered inmates into their cells. When Lusk went into the cellblock to do a head count, Figueroa and Underwood attacked him, officials said.
Lusk tried to spray the two with a chemical but they took it. They also took his radio and continued to beat him, jumping off a chair onto Lusk's head, officials said.
The two then took off Lusk's uniform and handcuffed him. Figueroa put on the uniform, including the gun belt, officials said.
Delacruz and Underwood dragged Lusk into the cell, and when backup officers responded to the commotion, the three went to their cots and feigned sleep, said a sheriff's spokeswoman.
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