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Show 0 R E M TIMES Thursday, December 27, 2007 Page 16 Inmates use paperclip to make alleged escape attempt Jeremy Duda I hrec inrn;ilcs from the Ut;ih County Jail were charged with Irving to cs :ipc from court with ;i little li' lp from pajM'i ( lip Kamon A h ;il;i-ll;inv., T), of lYovo, 2l-rar ill Kolwrt hirr ol I i hi and l'i- kii -old Charles Wheeler ol I'rovo were cai h ( harmed with attempted esraj, a third-degree Irlony. and possession ol an es aie devire, a serond-degi Irlony, after attempt in to unlock their hand nils with a paper ( hp, court d'K iimeni , said A( ( ordinf, to the court documents, doc-uments, the three rnen were in a holding ell on I hr ground floor of the I'rovo district court building whi n Lager started trying to unloi k his culls with a paper clip he had concealed, and thru passed the pa m r clips to the others so they could trv to tree themselves. them-selves. Air ala-Ihaiie ottered to show the other two how to unlock the cuffs, and used his body to block a surveillance camera in the nxrni while he picked at the lock, the court documents said. Unfortunately for the three inmates, a vigilant Utah County Coun-ty sheriff's deputy was watching watch-ing them via surveillance camera. Alter determining that the inmates were trying to manipulate their handcuffs, three deputies entered the holding cell and found the paper pa-per clip. " I here's no question in my mind that they were making every attempt to get out of the handcuffs so that when a deputy did ox n the door ... they would overpower him and escape," said Utah County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. I x nnis I larris. The sheriff's otfice provides security at the courthouse. I lad they managed to overpower over-power a deputy and escape front the holding cell, the trio would have still had to get past another locked door and any other deputies who were in the area. But Harris said they could have gotten past the door if someone was going in or out of the holding area when they escaped the cell, or could have taken a deputy hostage after overpowering him. Harris said he has never seen anyone unlock a pair of handcuffs with a paper clip, though he said it is possible. The sheriff's office is trying try-ing to find out where Eager obtained the paper clip. Harris said it could have accidentally been left in the area of the courtrrxjm where inmates sit while awaiting hearings, though deputies routinely search the area. "That's still under investigation. investiga-tion. We're looking at several different scenarios," Harris said. Alcala-Ibanez was already facing charges of possession of forged documents at the time of the alleged escape attempt, at-tempt, and was also in jail on an immigration hold. Eager had been charged with robbery, rob-bery, possession of cocaine, possession of heroin, possession posses-sion of drug paraphernalia and illegal possession of alcohol. Wheeler's charges included assault, as-sault, harassment, child abuse, violation of a protective order and criminal mischief. From now on, the three inmates will have to wear a type of mitt that restricts hand movement when they are at the courthouse, Harris said. Harris said he is writing letters of commendation for deputies Jerry Salcido, Justin Mortensen and Byron Johnson for stopping the alleged escape es-cape attempt. "These deputies, I feel like, did an outstanding job," Harris Har-ris said. I Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda(a heraldextra.com. M eraent cuts jobs in Utah I -A. J.l ftenroft mmm m . . We carry building materials, paint, cabinets, lighting fixtures, furniture and appliances. BE ST PRICES ON LITTLE GIANT LADDERS! 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If it doesn't sell, renew for 7 days FREE. heraldextra.com pttihjPtraia Grace Leong DAILY HERALD Orem eCommerce software seller iMergent, whose sales suffered in part because of national na-tional and local government inquiries over its business practices, prac-tices, laid off one-fifth of its total workforce this week, the company disclosed Thursday. The layoffs are aimed at cutting its operating expenses by between 15 percent and 20 percent, and are expected to deliver savings of about $1 million mil-lion annually, said Don Danks, iMergent's chief executive, in a statement Thursday. "The majority of the layoffs have already occurred and they were primarily in sales, general administration and support," said Jeffrey Korn, iMergent's attorney. He declined to specify speci-fy the number of people laid off or the size of its current workforce. work-force. The state Division of Consumer Con-sumer Protection, which had threatened earlier this year to shut down iMergent if it refused re-fused to register as a business opportunity but later dropped its petition, said the company had before its restructuring claimed it had close to 400 workers at one point. IMergent, which in recent months settled similar complaints com-plaints with Louisiana, is still barred from doing business in California and North Carolina. These two states, which account ac-count for about 15 percent of the company's total revenues, had issued injunctions for the company to file as a business opportunity seller. They allege the company is selling "business "busi-ness opportunities" and therefore, there-fore, has to register with the state in order to conduct those sales. "Our revenues are down, but the layoffs aren't an admission that we are not expecting to eventually do business in California Cali-fornia or North Carolina," Korn said. The company is still fighting the terms of the injunctions in court, saying it sells tools for businesses but not business opportunities. op-portunities. Meanwhile, the layoffs will result in a charge of less than $50,000 in the second quarter, the company said in Thursday's statement. Because of the layoffs, low-er-than-expected sales and continued absence from the California and North Carolina markets, the company revised downwards its guidance for fiscal 2008's revenues and net dollar volume of contracts, Danks said. These are expected to drop between 15 percent and 20 percent from $151.6 million in revenues in fiscal 2007 and $165.3 million in net dollar volume vol-ume of contracts in fiscal 2007, respectively. IMergent had previously expected a 10 percent to 15 percent increase over its fiscal 2007 results. News of the layoffs and revised 2008 guidance sent shares of iMergent plunging nearly 17 percent, or $2.11, to close Thursday's trading session ses-sion at $10.59 a share. In after-hours after-hours trading Thursday, the company's shares dropped another an-other 2.44 percent, or 26 cents to $10.33. Earlier this year, iMergent avoided a potential delisting from the American Stock Exchange Ex-change after the company took "prompt corrective action" to address what the exchange called "inadequate internal controls." con-trols." The company had violated AMEX's listing standards after Danks, its former chairman, leaked material information from its third-quarter fiscal earnings before it was due to be released to the public in May. Danks resigned as chairman but remains as chief executive of the company. The company also recently settled a shareholders' class action ac-tion lawsuit alleging accounting irregularities and illegal insider trading against its current and former officers and directors. The shareholders claimed they were duped into buying stock by iMergent's misleading statements state-ments about its prospects. iMergent, which settled without admitting liability, received re-ceived $3.3 million in proceeds from its directors' and officers' insurance policy. About $2.8 million of the funds was used to settle the consolidated class action case. i NaHtnl (Drew (Dcnruft&fEimcs i'VlM4 "K,lSl A! 1WtMM,IWkKKn.lMI fiC 10WKiUjjtalotWtimiH!ltolB WMBS: Nmtii mm 3r!Ui!lrs Iwan Oram flKc urate f srojrrft rwni r P mmmmt i POiKmU Pleasant (fkouc Jcutcui -'MM? . mtttuir.HUMv.mi .;wn SOmS; inJ?3t SftKflTfl! IN W 1 ! EMI TEWflKAU: Miwipfia irti.it at 8 PORT VIKINGS Elffl SEASON WITH LOSS lit PLAY-IN Man ehnt hm m!iBwrMlNIIS ItjnswwiiijUBfljfWNW IHS TEACHER PROWS SIMICAN6EBM hanges schedule mm Briefing Subscribe by calling 75- 51103 (SWTS) (Sffio) cu"T)C Your Local Weekly The Sunday Daily Herald Television Weekly KV TV. '-":::?:":; ..... 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