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Wanted man tries to get inside Garfield County Jail

Pete Fowler
Glenwood Springs Correspondent
Vail, CO Colorado

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado – Most people want out of jail. Jose Tineda Lemus seemed to want in.

Glenwood Springs police arrested Lemus, 40, early Monday afternoon after he walked inside a back door to the jail, said Police Chief Terry Wilson.

The police department had him booked on a trespassing charge. Lemus allegedly walked around the Glenwood Motor Inn three days earlier and knocked on people’s doors asking for money while he was intoxicated and had already been asked to leave.



Lemus returned Monday morning and continued trespassing and asking people for money, Wilson said, and he was gone when police arrived, but he ended up putting himself in jail anyway.

“He was outside and all of the (jail) trustees went inside their door and he just decided to traipse on in with them,” Wilson said.

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Wilson said Lemus may have been intoxicated, and he damaged a door during the incident. Police believe Lemus lives either in Glenwood Springs or Aspen.

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said Lemus walked into an area of the jail that is under reconstruction. In the past the area was used for a community corrections program but it is being redesigned into a transition area, where jail officials can temporarily hold inmates, he added.

The area is not currently a secure area of the jail because it’s under construction. Lemus had to walk behind the jail, through a gate and through a door. They weren’t locked because the area is under construction and workers were bringing materials in and out, Vallario said.

“Technically he was within the perimeter of the building,” Vallario said. “But that one piece was open for reconstruction.”

Vallario said the man was so intoxicated that Garfield County sheriff’s officials had not yet been able to confirm his identity around 5 p.m.

Wilson found it unusual for a suspect authorities were looking for to allegedly bring himself inside the jail without any help from police.

“If we could get him to train more people that we need in jail to go ahead and get themselves in there it would really help me out,” Wilson joked. “I’ve always heard of a lot more people trying to break out of jail than I have into jail, but, hey, it’s a new age.”


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