Man walks away from local jail a day after being sentenced to prison
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IDAHO FALLS — An Idaho Falls inmate walked away from the Bonneville County Jail Tuesday, just one day after being sentenced to prison.
The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office is looking for 20-year-old Elias Diego-Bradley. Sheriff’s Office spokesman Bryan Lovell says Diego-Bradley walked away from the Bonneville County Jail’s work detail around 8 a.m. Deputies consider Diego-Bradley an escapee.
“As the work detail crew was preparing to leave for the day’s tasks, Diego-Bradley fled the area on foot,” Lovell said in a news release. “Deputies and Idaho Falls police officers have been searching the area around the jail and investigating whether or not others were involved in this escape. In addition, deputies are seeking additional charges on Mr. Diego-Bradley for felony escape.”
It appears paperwork from the courts on Diego-Bradley’s sentencing did not make it over to the jail by the time he was put onto the work detail team Tuesday morning.
Lovell said since Diego-Bradley has been in jail since July 18, he received approval to be part of the work detail program. Work details crews leave the jail during the day with a supervising deputy to complete projects on county property, churches, non-profits and other charitable entities.
Diego-Bradley is 5 feet 6 inches tall, 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing civilian work clothes.
Anyone who knows Diego-Bradley’s whereabouts is asked to call Bonneville County dispatch at (208) 529-1200 or submit a tip to www.ifcrime.org.
Prison sentence
On Monday, Diego-Bradley received a one- to five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to two felony counts of video voyeurism by sending a sexual image without consent. He also pleaded guilty to felony witness intimidation.
Prior to receiving his sentence, Diego-Bradley had been part of a work-detail program at the local jail.
The charges against Diego-Bradley came after he sent graphic sexual videos of a teenager over Facebook in August. He sent the videos to the victim’s mother after she told Diego-Bradley to stay away from her daughter.
Court records show prosecutors asked Diego-Bradley to be sentenced to spend two to 15 years in prison while defense attorneys requested probation.
Events leading to arrest
Idaho Falls Police Department reports show the victim’s mother felt Diego-Bradley had abused her daughter.
She also said Diego-Bradley taught her how to shoplift and would disappear with her for 16- to 20-hours at a time. The tensions elevated until Diego-Bradley allegedly barged into a neighbor’s home in the middle of the night to get the victim.
The victim’s mother told Diego-Bradley to not be around the victim anymore. Then days later Diego-Bradley responded with derogatory words. The messages continued with Diego-Bradley swearing at the mother. He also sent two explicit videos of Diego-Bradley engaged in sex acts with the victim, according to court documents.
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The victim’s mother was upset and asked police to charge Diego-Bradley with statutory rape. However, under Idaho law, police explained that the victim and Diego-Bradley are not three or more years apart and thus they can not charge him with rape. However, investigators explained it is illegal to record and send sexually explicit videos online without the consent of all involved.
Police spoke with the victim, who explained she knew Diego-Bradley was recording her performing sex acts on him, according to court documents. But the victim thought the videos were going to be kept private and not shared with others.
Investigators sent a warrant to Facebook, requiring them to preserve content on Diego-Bradley’s Facebook account. Police found evidence Diego-Bradley had been exchanging messages with the mother, but they did not find the offending messages. They believe he may have deleted the messages and videos before police sent in the warrant.
Diego-Bradley was arrested and charged in December.
Watkins also ordered Diego-Bradley to pay a $1,000 fine.
CORRECTION: EastIdahoNews.com initially reported Diego-Bradley was part of a work-release program when it is actually a work-detail program. EastIdahoNews.com apologizes for this error and it has been updated in this story.