Lawyer Seeks Clemency For Fugitive Mom

Will Ask Mich. Gov. To Commute Drug Sentence For Woman Nabbed 32 Years After Prison Escape

(CBS/AP)  An attorney for a woman arrested in California 32 years after escaping a Detroit prison said he plans to petition Michigan's governor to commute the nine years remaining on her sentence.

Susan LeFevre, who married and raised three children in a posh San Diego suburb using the name Marie Walsh, has agreed to be extradited to Michigan to face the consequences of her 1975 guilty plea to drug-trafficking charges. She served one year of a 10- to 20-year sentence before climbing over a fence to meet her waiting grandfather in February 1976.

Now 53, LeFevre was arrested April 24 outside her home. She is being held at a women's jail in San Diego County, where she is bound by handcuffs and a plastic bracelet bearing the identity she never revealed to her husband of 23 years.

"Nobody is suggesting that she ought to just be able to walk away from this and have everybody forget, but we now have the benefit of perspective," Paul Denenfeld, LeFevre's lawyer in Grand Rapids, Mich., said Thursday. "By all indications she's been a good wife and mother and a good community person, so we think that presents extraordinary circumstances and we think that calls for governors to respond in kind."

Michigan corrections officials said LeFevre would return to Michigan within a few weeks and would be responsible for serving out her sentence. Under sentencing laws from the 1970s, she likely would have to serve at least 5½ years before being eligible for parole in 2013, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan.

"She's not going to do 10 years," Marlan said.

Michigan officials do not plan to ask prosecutors in Wayne County, where LeFevre fled the Detroit House of Corrections, to pursue escape charges against her, he said. LeFevre may forfeit credit she earned for good time during her year in prison because she escaped.

The prison is now known as Robert Scott Correctional Facility.

LeFevre, who trained as a hospice worker and volunteered for political causes in California, said she tried to live a model life to atone for her past mistakes.

"I've tried to be exceptionally good," she told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday at the Las Colinas Detention Facility in Santee, a San Diego suburb. "I wanted to make a life as Marie, to make a point of being as disciplined as possible."

She said her behavior as a teenager, when she was despondent over the death of her high school sweetheart in the Vietnam War, was "inexcusable." She was 19 when she was arrested with a friend during an undercover drug operation at a pizza parlor outside Saginaw, Mich., in 1974.

Michigan corrections officials said investigators at the time believed she was making several thousand dollars a week selling heroin and knew top drug dealers in the area.

LeFevre said she supported herself working full-time at a Kmart after moving out of her parents' house. She said she agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and violation of drug laws to spare her family the embarrassment of a trial and expected to be put on probation. Instead, she was given the maximum sentence.

LeFevre said she hid her fugitive status from her husband and children until agents began actively looking for her late last year. Federal officials said an anonymous call tipped them to her name and location in March.

[fabrat1]

MichelleM99 how are you? You know, the main reason I think she should serve all of her time is because of what it could create if she doesn''t. Just think about it, if she gets to get out of serving her time because she escaped and was gone for so long what would happen next? My thoughts are that the next thing you know even more people will be trying to escape so they can get off of the charges they are charged with. You can''t just break out of jail and then if you''re good you can hide for years and then when caught, get off just because you did such a good job at hiding.

[fabrat1]

cpaide yet again you''re wrong. I do feel that she should serve her time just like she should have all those years ago. However I do feel bad for the family she decieved for so many years and even though they did nothing wrong they''ll be suffering too. Maybe CBS didn''t repore every single detail but the story I posted the link to cover a lot of the things you claimed they didn''t.

[michellem99-2009]

fabrat,makes a good point. There are some persons that are hurt by lies a husband and his/her children friends family. How long could she live and keep up the lies. Stealing an ID to be free. I pity the kids they be hurt by this. She knew better. They need to reform the prisons..the system now is not working.

[unterseeboot]

Sort of reminds me of Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables". A crime haunts one for life.

[unterseeboot]

Sort of reminds me of Jean Valjeaan in "Les Miserables". A crime haunts one for life.

[cpaide]

Posted by fabrat1

the cbs story you cite does not report the complete facts of the case. she used a false date of birth and also a social security number that she stole from a person who died in 1981. she used this number for about 10 years while this person was alive. that''s identity theft.

this story has nothing to do with molesting kids as you indicate. however, since you asked, i would be in favor of locking her up if she had been convicted of criminal child molestation. wouldn''t you? maybe you''re referring to the mormons in texas who you think are guilty of some kind of child molestation. however, in that case, there have been no convictions and not even any charges.

if anyone is waffling here, it is you for being so quick to condemn innocent people who have not been charged with a crime, yet so quick to sympathize with someone who is a convicted criminal who escaped from prison.

if any of the mormon men are convicted of criminal acts, then they should be punished according to the law, of course, and i would not be in favor of any pardon--even if a number of years passed.

so what part of this is so difficult for you to understand?

[fabrat1]

cpaide

"She obtained a California driver''s license using a false date of birth but didn''t risk renewing it after it expired in 1999."

This is a direct quote from an earlier story on yes.... CBS. You should know what you''re saying before you just start running your mouth as usual.
Don''t believe it... here''s the site look for yourself.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/02/national/main4064155.shtml?source=search_story

[fabrat1]

cpaide... wow you say lock her up but if she had molested kids what...you would want her to be free?? Your views change so often do you even know what you believe in?

[cpaide]

as usual, cbs fails to tell the whole story.

the drug-trafficking charges were just the beginning and should not be minimized. how many lives did she ruin by peddling heroin, cocaine, etc. to neighborhood children?

escape charges should be pursued and would add another 5-10 years to her prison time.

how about fraud charges with respect to her marriage? and various other fraud charges for every application, affidavit and legal document that she executed under her assumed name. include tax fraud for filing returns under a false identity.

then there''s identity theft for the social security number and identity that she stole from someone who died in 1981 (also not reported by cbs).

and don''t forget driving without a license, as her california license was not renewed in 1999 because of her fear of being caught (also not reported by cbs).

these are just the few instances of law-breaking that we know about. who knows how many other laws she broke through the years.

this pattern of law-breaking throughout her life should not be rewarded with any kind of amnesty just because she is a pretty soccer mom who drives (without a license) a nice gas-chugging suv.

she''s got her 3 strikes in california. lock her up as an example of the seriousness of facilitating drug abuse among young people.

[michellem99-2009]

Dear Madam;
I do not know Marie, Ye sais Susan Lefevre died 32 yrs ago. No dear as that is her name given by her parents. She has grown up. I am 53. Never done drugs.
I hear the news. Yes they abuse the immates.The ladies the wores. I have told my friend the prisom system don''t work. They ware house them. I was given Barbara Ann M. that my parents gave me at birth. I later changed my full name. I learnt that hurt my Dad. I was a foster child. Tho I was Michelle M. for years. I later went to court to ask for ny birth name back. Who died that day a name did. I am sorry for Marie I really am. I live in Seattle. Yer right Dear lady, America is not the America my senior father served. She looks so scared. I was 19 and dunb.

[annaleyenaar]

I am a good friend of Marie Walsh, which she prefers to be called since Susan Lefevre "died" 32 years ago. Have some mercy for my dear friend. This experience has haunted her for years. This is an example of how our law tries to convict people so that they can exercise their "toughness". The law doesnt seem to be of the interest of rehabiliting people with problems, rather they prefer to rape victims of dignity and respect. Funding is spent on more police control and corruptness, rather than rehabilitation, which should be a priority for out society. Yes, Marie made bad choices, by hanging around the wrong kind of friends. She preaches this to her children for good reasons. Everybody experimented with Drugs in the 1970''s, should that make you a criminal? Our society is a police society, and money is not spent on the people that really need help. Im very disgusted and I plead everyone to please support my friend, Marie, and spare her family the grief. She has been thru enough. Her "secret: is now worldwide. Please sign a petition or write/call/fax the governor of Michigan..petition website is
http://freesusanlefevre.com Her family needs your help!!!!

[annaleyenaar]

Marie Walsh is a very good friend of mine, and she was pressured by authorities and led to believe that she must plead guilty, and that she would only get probation. Instead she was slammed with maximun sentence. Physical violence and abuse in the prison is always ignored by our prison guards, and tolerated. This is no place for a young girl, no wonder she escaped. Our society needs to rethink what we are spending our money on, and quit cutting programs that are needed to rehabilitate people. Its a shame that our country can''t do better. If all the money would be spent of drug education and rehabilition instead of housing non violent criminals, then maybe we could live in a better world. Marie punishment did not fit her crime. As a very good friend, I now understand all the choices she had to make to hide her "secret".. Have some compassion for my dear friend and family, she is a giver, not a taker, and she is of the highest integrity. Please contact governor at in Michigan to support her and request a pardon. There is a petition at http://freesusanlefevre.com - please support her she needs your help! This is insane.

[michellem99-2009]

Who is gonna pardon her..The state. Ma told me *i won''t have a crook in my house*, she call the cops. How could this woman hind it from her husband. now they run cop checks on people.

[dovestar]

Granted, the man should have been arrested as well. However, the principle Jesus was trying to teach was not justice but compassion. Sin is a choice. And both man and woman were equally guilty in the eyes of the law.
And how do we know that this woman wasn''t set up?

[trhallma]

Ok, I will cast the first stone. The law during the biblical days stated that the man AND woman caugt in the act of adultery would be put to death. Jesus knew that woman was set up and it was a test for Jesus. The woman was set up and this was apparent becuase the man involved in the act was not present. No one knows what Jesus wrote on the ground. It could''ve been the name of a high ranking official that set up the woman. No one knows! Any how, back to the present time...the lady escaped from prison. She should be punished! Felon on the run...hello!

[oldone60]

Or studied any history

[oldone60]

America is the most Ridiculously hypocritic insanely immoral country in history ....

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Posted by Mikewilsonm at 03:43 PM : May 02, 2008

Spoken like someone who has never been out of the country.

[tomanyt]

If this had been a man, they would have thrown him to the wolves as soon as he was caught. But since its a woman we want to treat her with kid gloves. That''s c.r.a.p. Let her go back and serve her sentence. Lots of other people are or have served there time for the crime they committed.

[tomanyt]

Mikewilsonm...And your point would be????

[Knight6000]

America is the most Ridiculously hypocritic insanely immoral country in history ....