Larned hospital served search warrant by Pawnee County sheriff

Pawnee County Sheriff Scott King obtained a search warrant on July 6 to get more information from the Larned State Hospital about the escape last month of John Freeman Colt from the hospital’s sexual predator treatment program.

The Kansas Department of Aging and Disabilities is in charge of the program at the hospital. Pawnee County Attorney Doug McNett told Eagle Radio on Wednesday why Sheriff King made the decision to get a search warrant.

“He did not feel that KDADS was giving him timely access,” McNett said. “They still at that stage hadn’t received the internal videos of the events leading up to his escape as well as some of the documentation that law enforcement had requested. So to expedite that, they went to the District Court and obtained a search warrant.”

McNett said the videos might reveal if someone was helping Colt escape.

Colt walked out of the facility shortly after 7 a.m. June 30, but the hospital did not notify the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office about the escape until 12:47 p.m. Colt was last seen in Larned at 11:20 a.m. June 30.

According to McNett, the delay in contacting the sheriff’s office about the escape was caused at least in part by the hospital’s initial search for Colt.

"We never did get a straight answer as to what exactly prompted it,” McNett said. “I got the impression it was something to do with the nursing staff questioning, ‘Hey, there was this extra person on our unit that shouldn’t have been here.’ It was determined that was Mr. Colt dressed as a psychologist. So they went and did a security count and that count was wrong. And then they did a second one and then they did a third one. It wasn’t until the fourth time that they called Safety and Security to come over. They went into his room and realized that he had staged it to look like he was sleeping in the bed, and no one had actually verified that someone was in the bed until that fourth count. That’s when they notified law enforcement.”

McNett said Colt has been charged in Pawnee County with aggravated escape from a care and treatment facility. A warrant has been issued, which means Colt can be picked up and detained by any law enforcement agency in the United States.