Joseph Bernard Phillips (age 32), of Eastman, escaped from the Dodge County jail on Friday evening, January 13 around 6:15 p.m. Phillips was captured Monday morning, January 16 around 10:30 a.m. in Atlanta by Dodge County deputies, the United States Marshall Service and Atlanta police officers.
Phillips was arrested on Friday by the Oconee Drug Task Force and charged with the sale of cocaine. Phillips escaped when he shoved down a sheriff’s employee and ran out of the jail lobby door. Dodge detention officers chased Phillips on foot for several blocks before losing him. Law enforcement officials believe Phillips was picked up by an unknown person in a vehicle.
Dodge County deputies and several Middle Georgia law enforcement agencies worked diligently over the weekend to capture Phillips. Phillips boarded a Greyhound bus in Dublin early Monday morning. Law enforcement officers captured Phillips at a bus terminal in Atlanta. Officers say that Phillips was trying to escape to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Phillips now faces additional charges of escape and obstruction.
The current Dodge County jail was built in 1972 and does not meet current standard safety and security codes. All inmates are taken in, booked and processed in the only entrance into the jail, which is accessible to the public with only one door to exit the jail area.
In other news, Dodge County sheriff’s investigators seized ten (10) marijuana plants from a home in Gresston last Thursday afternoon, January 12. Investigators went to a home on Wilson Woodard Road seeking to talk with a suspect about a burglary. However, investigators found out that the suspect had moved from the residence. The investigators observed several small marijuana plants growing in pots on the porch of the residence while talking with the current person residing in the home. Sheriff’s investigators arrested Kasey Ray Giddens (age 18), of Eastman, and charged Giddens with manufacturing marijuana.
Sheriff’s investigators have made an arrest in an old burglary case from 2003. Investigators were recently notified by the Georgia State Crime Lab that a DNA match had been made on a blood sample taken from the original crime scene. The burglary occurred at the now closed Inglewood Store on the Lower River Road. Investigators have arrested Richard David Sanders (age 24), of Eastman, and charged him with burglary in connection with case.
The deputies gave chase for several blocks and was unable to catch him,this person must have ran like OJ Simpson unless the deputies need some fitness training if they let somone escape like this.What if this would have been a murderer,or a rapist? Sheriff Hinson must be scratching his head and wondering how in the _____ this could have happened.
The jail only has one way in and one way out,now we can see several reasons why Dodge County need the NEW jail up and running. Not only does the current jail pose a SECURITY THREAT but it also pose a FIRE SAFETY HAZARD to all that enters,deputies,inmates or visitors.