Nicotine craving costly for escapee

Aug. 26, 2007

BY GREG JOHNSON/Frontiersman

PALMER - A quick trip to get cigarettes is typically a routine errand. Being caught after leaving a jail work detail to run that same errand is not.

Jason J. Brown of Palmer crawled over the fence at the Palmer Correction Center Wednesday to meet a Wasilla woman who brought him three bags of tobacco to roll cigarettes with, said Megan Peters, spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers.

Officers from the Palmer Police Department detained the 23-year-old escapee about 15 minutes after he left the correctional facility, Peters said. A local resident placed a 911 call to report a suspicious person near the railroad tracks near 480 Commercial Drive.

Peters left the work detail to meet with Moriah M. McVey, a 25-year-old Wasilla resident, troopers report. The pair had apparently made arrangements to meet.

In addition to his original charges, Brown was arrested and transported to the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $5,000 bail for an escape charge and attempted promotion of contraband, troopers report. McVey was issued a summons to appear in court for attempted promotion of contraband.