SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Feb. 6, 2014) — A woman who allegedly escaped from a Michigan prison in 1977 is refusing to admit that she is the person sought by authorities.
Judy Lynn Hayman, 60, is currently being held without bail in San Diego after her arrest Monday.
“In every criminal case, the accused has the right to challenge the allegations against her, and that’s what she’s doing right now,” said Hayman’s attorney, Lisa Damiani. “Our process allows us to take the Fifth Amendment, for example, in order to be able to look into the underlying facts and make a determination as to what the truth is, and find out what the truth is, and then once we find out what the truth is, make a legitimate statement to the world, so to speak.”
San Diego police arrested Hayman after information from Michigan corrections officials. According to San Diego Police Lt. Kevin Mayer, she admitted to her true identity under questioning.
Hayman pleaded guilty in June 1976 to an attempted larceny charge for trying to steal clothes from a Detroit-area store and was sentenced to serve between 16 months and two years in custody, according to prison officials there.
Ten months later, she escaped from the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility. She remained a fugitive until this week, using various aliases — including Judy Kayman and Brenda Bushmer — while at large, officials said.
Investigators with the Michigan Department of Corrections are required to take a look at their cold cases once a year.
This year, they took an extra step, converting fugitive fingerprints from paper to digital and sending them to the FBI crime lab in Virginia for analysis.
“When they gave us fingerprints back, they had different names or different aliases on them,” Lt. Charles Levens of the Michigan Department of Corrections said.
He credits Hayman’s arrest to the tenacity of lead investigator Tim Hardville.
