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As a result, 36-year-old Albert Voute of Oradell has vaulted to the top of Bergen County’s Most Wanted list, as CLIFFVIEW PILOT first reported Wednesday.
Voute was serving a 170-month sentence after admitting her robbed banks in New Milford, Emerson and West Windor — all around Christmastime 2005. He was on parole at the time, having served nine years when he was caught and sentenced. But he still had an outstanding charge in Bergen County, for a carjacking, and he made a break for it while being taken to a Hackensack courtroom from Kentucky.
Around 3 a.m. Wednesday, the driver for a prisoner transportation company taking Voute to a court appearance in Hackensack on a carjacking charge stopped to make a phone call outside a closed Burger King in on Route 901 in Falling Waters, West Virginia, authorities said. While the other guard slept, Voute hopped out of the van, slipped out of his shackles and shoes, and took off, they said.
He was last seen running into the woods behind the fast-food restaurant in his orange prison jumpsuit, said Jennifer Monaghan, a spokeswoman for Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. Other prisoners in the van stayed put, authorities in West Virginia said.
McGuire’s staff entered the information into the National Crime Information Center, which is accessible to every law enforcement agency in the country, after North Atlantic Extradition Services (NAES) notified federal authorities in Kentucky, where Voute had been housed at United States Prison Big Sandy in Inez.
Voute served nine years in state prison in New Jersey in connection with a trio of convictions in Bergen County — for resisting arrest, eluding police, and gun possession, records show.
Voute was placed on federal escape status, Monaghan said. The U.S. Marshals Service, West Virginia State Police and local authorities are leading the search, with the help of K-9 units and a Maryland State Police helicopter, according to local reports, she said.
Undated NJDOC photo
Voute is described as 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, with short black hair.
Authorities said HE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged not to approach him in any way.
Instead, call 911.
To forward information anonymously to the BCSO through the BergenTip line, you can send the word ‘BergenTip’ and your message to “CRIMES” – or 274637 on your cell phone. On the web, go to www.BergenTip.com and click near the top of the page to submit an anonymous tip.
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