I just KNOW that my fellow tdcaa members have some interesting observations regarding this situation. Apparently, someone who recoginized him fingered him to the police, resulting in his capture.


Longtime fugitive jailed � again
Man who used his severed finger as part of a faked suicide picked up by bounty hunters
By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

The now-you've-got-him, now-you-don't-search for an accused child molester who left his severed finger in a Galveston motel room to bolster a suicide threat ended this week with his arrest in a New Orleans suburb.

Stephen Douglas James, 50, of Bastrop County was held without bail Thursday in a Louisiana state prison, awaiting extradition to Texas.

James, a fugitive since August 2004, was arrested Dec. 8 in New Orleans after an acquaintance spotted him and notified authorities, Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz said. But James inadvertently was released on $50,000 bond � even as the Bastrop prosecutor desperately tried to inform Orleans Parish officials of the man's flight risk.

"We sent them a teletype urging them to hold him without bond," Goertz said. "I don't know if they saw it or not. But he was released on bond at 5 p.m. (last) Friday. ... It was impossible to communicate with New Orleans."

Exasperated by developments and unable to affect court action in Louisiana, Goertz contacted Orleans Parish prosecutors to learn the name of James' bondsman.

"Greed is a wonderful motivator," he said. "I don't know if the bondsman didn't know the full extent of the risk of flight. But I told them they were going to lose their bond. I gave it to them with both barrels."

Goertz said he called the bonding agency about noon Saturday. By early Sunday, bounty hunters working for the bonding company had located James in suburban Jefferson Parish and arranged for his arrest.

"No doubt he was feeling confident," Goertz said. "He never had an intention of showing up in court. ... The state had his finger in Galveston. Now I have his whole body."

James' ring finger, still wearing a gold wedding band, has been in the custody of the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office since August 2004, when it was found beside the bathroom sink of a Bolivar Peninsula motel.

Near the finger, which had been severed neatly at the knuckle, were a note and an audiotape in which James expressed despondency over his marriage, which ended in divorce in spring 2004. In those messages, he advised that he planned to row into the Gulf and drown himself.

A Coast Guard search found no body, but James' rented kayak, containing a box cutter and a little blood, eventually was located near the entrance of the Houston Ship Channel.

Galveston authorities categorized James' case as "missing endangered," but Goertz was skeptical.

James had failed to appear in court July 6 and Dec. 10 on the first-degree felony charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, an accusation growing out of an alleged series of attacks on a teenage girl.

"I don't have any evidence he's dead," Goertz said at the time. " ... I've issued a warrant. Kind of 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.' I don't have a death certificate."

Galveston County investigators said James had arrived in the emergency room of Galveston's John Sealy Hospital on July 5 � the day before his first mandated court appearance � carrying a finger he said he had accidentally severed.

Goertz said Thursday that James has told authorities he will fight extradition to Texas to face the sexual assault charge, which could send him to prison for life.

The district attorney said he planned to seek a governor's warrant to expedite James' transfer to Texas authorities.

He should be in Texas custody within 90 days, Goertz said.

It's not nice to give the police the finger...