Teen Escapes Jail, Police Say Mom Helped

OCALA (CBS4/AP) - It's one thing to try to escape from state custody. It's another thing to get your mom to help you, but the mother of an Ocala teenager faces charges of helping her 17-year-old son escape from a central-Florida juvenile facility. He's still on the run, but his mom is headed for jail.

Police have bcharged 35-year-old Lekeshia Cohen with aiding escape from a detention facility and fleeing and eluding. She was charged after her son, Yarnel Bagley, escaped from Marion County authorities Tuesday. It was his second escape. The first caused a shakeup in Marion County's corrections department, with a guard suspended for a month and a sheriff's major removed from overseeing Corrections.

Police arrested Cohen as they were running down leads in the second escape, which took place in a section of the Marion County jail where minors being charged as adults are being held. Investigators speculate that the teen visited a bathroom, and somehow managed to get into a recreation yard. A corrections officer spotted him as he fled and yelled to him, but couldn't stop him.

As part of routine questioning, police said Cohen told authorities he called and asked her to pick him up Tuesday night. She said he was wearing inmate pants when she picked him up.

The teen's mother says she drove him to Georgia to meet a family friend. Investigators say they've contacted the woman, who assured them she is not harboring the teenager.

Investigators believe the teen has already returned to the Ocala area, and is still at large. It took them a week to capture him after his first escape. Bagley has a long criminal history, but most recently was being held on an auto theft charge.