Pregnant inmate flees Salem hospital, captured block away

By MARY ANN GREIER
SALEM — A pregnant female Columbiana County Jail inmate already facing drug possession and falsification charges can add felony escape to the list after she walked out of Salem Community Hospital in a hospital gown and slippers Tuesday morning, only to be caught a block away.

Salem police officers found Paris M Lovett, 21, of 1159 Penn Ave., East Liverpool, hiding in the bathroom of a residence on Monroe Street where she had knocked on the door and asked to use the phone. They had responded to the 1900 block of Monroe Street after receiving a call at 10:49 a.m. about a woman in a hospital gown walking down the street and asking to use a phone at one of the homes.

Escorted at gunpoint, Lovett was released to deputies of the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office. She will be charged with escape, a fourth-degree felony.

Sheriff David Smith said a deputy drove Lovett, who is reportedly nine months pregnant, to the hospital Tuesday morning and dropped her off for a pregnancy evaluation and testing.

While the deputy awaited her return to the waiting area of the hospital, Smith said she left after the appointment, apparently through another door. He said she didn’t return to the area where she was supposed to return.

No one was injured.

According to Columbiana County Common Pleas Court documents, Judge David Tobin issued a bench warrant for Lovett on April 11 when she failed to show up for a final status hearing in a criminal case against her . She had been indicted in August 2007 for three counts of possession of drugs, with one count a third-degree felony, one count a fifth-degree felony and one count a third-degree misdemeanor.

Court documents alleged she possessed crack cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA (also known as ecstasy) and alprazolam on March 16, 2007.

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East Liverpool Police arrested Lovett after a traffic stop at 4:28 a.m. Saturday on Mulberry Street when the driver of the car she was riding in made a U-turn on Pennsylvania Avenue. The police officer who stopped the vehicle reported that he thought he recognized Lovett as the passenger and knew there was a warrant out for her.

When he asked for her name, she allegedly replied Amma, not once, but twice, and claimed she didn’t have identification when he asked for it. She later admitted she was Lovett.

She pled not guilty to falsification in East Liverpool Municipal Court on Monday, with bond set at $2,500 cash or surety or 10 percent, according to court records.

Smith noted that if she’s in custody when she gives birth, the county will be responsible for the medical costs since the law requires the covering of all medical care for inmates by the entity which has custody, in this case, the county.

Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier@salemnews.net