2 Jail Escapees Are Fighting Extradition

Two escapees from Orange County Jail who were captured Sunday in Colorado will contest their extradition to California, officials said Tuesday.

Lt. Richard Olson, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, estimated that the legal procedure, in which Gov. George Deukmejian would ask Colorado’s governor to extradite the two fugitives, will take 60 to 90 days.

Steven Wilson, 26, and Richard Fluharty, also 26, were arrested Sunday by FBI agents who staked out a Westminster, Colo., apartment complex.

According to Detective Larry Weant of the Denver Police Department, Fluharty is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 9 to begin the formal extradition process. A hearing for Wilson, who was arrested under the name Paul Reteaux, is set for Dec. 12.

Wilson and Fluharty broke out of Orange County Jail with two other inmates on Nov. 19 by cutting a hole in security fencing and lowering themselves from the four-story building with a sheet.

One escapee, Eleazar Gonzales, 20, of Santa Ana, jailed in a gang-related slaying, walked into a police station Thanksgiving night and surrendered. A fourth inmate, robbery suspect Anthony Gianetti, 35, still is being sought. And a fifth inmate--Ly Hung, a 22-year-old from Irvine being held in the slayings of two people--broke his leg attempting to escape with the others.

Wilson, a transient from Ontario, Calif., who was arrested by Orange police April 2, was being held without bail on charges of robbery, kidnaping and assault with a deadly weapon. Fluharty, of Garden Grove, was arrested Nov. 9 by Orange County sheriff’s deputies on a burglary charge.