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THUG
LASHES
OUT!
News photographer Debbie
Egan-Chin snapped these
shots of Jersey jailbird Otis
Blunt aboard Aeromexico
Flight 408 yesterday. The
big-mouthed escape
artist later took a swing
at Egan-Chin after the
flight landed in New
York.
I could’ve
stayed on
the loose
Escapee brags as
police haul him
back from Mexico
BY MIKE JACCARINO aboard Aeromexico Flight 408
and RICH SCHAPIRO and DAVE GOLDINER in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
BIG-MOUTHED ESCAPE artist Otis Blunt was
brought back from Mexico in handcuffs yesterday
— but bragged he could have stayed on the run
forever.
The Jersey jailbird who led
cops on a wild goose chase
south of the border couldn’t re-
sist taunting them as they led
him back inside.
“Ain’t nobody was trying to
get away,” said Blunt, who chis-
eled his way out of a cell last
month. “I could have gotten
away if I wanted to.”
The verbal shot came after
Blunt made a tension-filled trip
back stateside from Mexico,
where cops put an end to his
amazing escape odyssey.
Blunt’s eyes flitted nervously
as three brawny Mexican cops
watched over him outside Gate
35 in Benito Juarez International
Airport in Mexico City.
Smelling trouble, a lone U.S.
Marshal warned others to keep
an eye on the captured fugitive.
“He’s going to lash out,” the
lawman said. “He wants a fight.”
The accused armed robber
was led onto the empty plane
first and put in a window seat in
Row 30, the last row.
Five hours later, he was still
mad enough to take a swing at a
female Daily News photogra-
pher after the plane landed in
New York.
Even as Blunt was back be-
hind bars, the Rev. Al Sharpton
came out swinging against crit-
ics of his attempt to broker
Blunt’s surrender.
“I’m not in the bounty busi-
ness, I’m in civil rights,” Sharp-
ton thundered at a Harlem news
conference. “I did this because I
thought it was the humanitarian
thing to do.”
Sharpton slammed Union
County Prosecutor Ted Roman-
kow for allowing Blunt to escape
in the first place and stay on the
run for three weeks.
“He has to explain how people
broke out of his jail, how they
didn’t know it for 20 hours and
how they got all the way to Mexi-
co,” Sharpton said. “How does
Al Sharpton become responsible
for all this?”
Blunt, 32, a suspected armed
robber, and Jose Espinosa, 20,
broke out of the Union County
Jail on Dec. 14 in a scheme remi-
niscent of “The Shawshank Re-
demption.”
They pounded a hole in a wall
and covered it up with nudie pic-
tures. After jumping to safety
over a barbed wire fence, they es-
caped detection for nearly a day.
They thanked a jail guard in a
sarcastic note, and the guard lat-
er committed suicide in appar-
ent humiliation.
Espinosa, who twisted his
ankle, got only a few blocks
away and was busted Monday.
U.S. marshals tracked Blunt
down to a shabby $13-a-night
room. They burst in as he and a
girlfriend who shacked up with
him for a week took a shower.
Authorities said they were
quizzing the woman to see if she
helped him get to Mexico or
elude capture.
mjaccarino@nydailynews.com
NEW YORKERS would support
congestion pricing if the money
went to mass transit — other-
wise, they hate it, a poll revealed.
The Quinnipiac University poll
released yesterday also found
that city voters prefer Mayor
Bloomberg’s congestion pricing
plan to putting tolls on the East
River bridges.
Bloomberg proposed charging
cars $8 to enter Manhattan be-
low 86th St. on weekdays, an op-
tion that just 37% of voters polled
would support — though it jumps
to 60% if the revenue is ear-
marked for mass transit.
Only 25% of voters would sup-
port tolls on the East River bridg-
es — and given the choice, they
would pick congestion pricing
over tolls, 43% to 35%.
A city-state commission study-
ing those options will hold seven
public hearings around the five
boroughs and the suburbs start-
ing Wednesday. The City Council
and Albany must still sign off on
any plan.
A $4 toll on all the free bridges
into Manhattan would raise $859
million, versus just $420 million
for congestion pricing — but
would be much less likely to win
political support, experts said.
Adam Lisberg
Congest plan wins
– if cash for transit
OOPS, THEY did it again!
NYC Transit put out a press re-
lease Wednesday announcing
there would be no weekday ex-
press trains running on the No. 7
line — from Monday until Feb. 29.
But the all-local service actually
kicks in this morning on the line,
which runs between Flushing,
Queens, and Times Square. After
the initial release, the agency post-
ed a corrected item on its Web site
without fanfare.
A spokesman yesterday said the
error was not repeated in posters
placed in stations to alert riders of
the service disruptions being
caused by track and signal work.
Express trains shave seven min-
utes off the trip from one end of
the line to the other, a NYC Transit
spokesman said.
A year ago, the agency flubbed a
public information campaign
about a similar No. 7 line project,
giving riders bad information in
brochures, posters and on the Web
site. Errors included posters featur-
ing an abridged map with the R
train stopping at Grand Central.
The express service is being
shut down for the installation of
new signal equipment and track
switches. It also will result in a
total shutdown of No. 7 train ser-
vice during five weekends, be-
tween Main St., Flushing, and
Woodside/61st St. starting tomor-
row
The Long Island Rail Road will
provide free shuttle trains, and
NYC Transit will also have free
shuttle buses to provide alternate
service. Pete Donohue
They meant
to say: 7 all
local TODAY
Fugitive Otis Blunt is escorted out of terminal at Kennedy Airport
yesterday after flying in from Mexico City. Photo by Anthony DelMundo
Friday,January11,2008DAILYNEWSnydailynews.com4
125nydailynews.comDAILYNEWSFriday,January11,2008