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THUG LASHES
OUT!News photographer Debbie Egan-Chin snapped these shots of Jersey jailbird Otis Blunt aboard Aeromexico Flight 408 yesterday. The big-mouthed escape artist later took a swing at Egan-Chin after the fl ight landed in New York.
I could’vestayed onthe loose
Escapee brags aspolice haul himback from Mexico
BY MIKE JACCARINO aboard Aeromexico Flight 408and RICH SCHAPIRO and DAVE GOLDINER in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
BIG-MOUTHED ESCAPE artist Otis Blunt wasbrought back from Mexico in handcuffs yesterday— but bragged he could have stayed on the runforever.
The Jersey jailbird who ledcops on a wild goose chasesouth of the border couldn’t re-sist taunting them as they ledhim back inside.
“Ain’t nobody was trying toget away,” said Blunt, who chis-eled his way out of a cell lastmonth. “I could have gottenaway if I wanted to.”
The verbal shot came afterBlunt made a tension-filled tripback stateside from Mexico,where cops put an end to hisamazing escape odyssey.
Blunt’s eyes flitted nervouslyas three brawny Mexican copswatched over him outside Gate35 in Benito Juarez InternationalAirport in Mexico City.
Smelling trouble, a lone U.S.Marshal warned others to keepan eye on the captured fugitive.
“He’s going to lash out,” thelawman said. “He wants a fight.”
The accused armed robberwas led onto the empty planefirst and put in a window seat inRow 30, the last row.
Five hours later, he was stillmad enough to take a swing at afemale Daily News photogra-pher after the plane landed inNew York.
Even as Blunt was back be-
hind bars, the Rev. Al Sharptoncame out swinging against crit-ics of his attempt to brokerBlunt’s surrender.
“I’m not in the bounty busi-ness, I’m in civil rights,” Sharp-ton thundered at a Harlem newsconference. “I did this because Ithought it was the humanitarianthing to do.”
Sharpton slammed UnionCounty Prosecutor Ted Roman-kow for allowing Blunt to escapein the first place and stay on therun for three weeks.
“He has to explain how peoplebroke out of his jail, how theydidn’t know it for 20 hours andhow they got all the way to Mexi-co,” Sharpton said. “How doesAl Sharpton become responsiblefor all this?”
Blunt, 32, a suspected armedrobber, and Jose Espinosa, 20,broke out of the Union CountyJail on Dec. 14 in a scheme remi-niscent of “The Shawshank Re-
demption.”They pounded a hole in a wall
and covered it up with nudie pic-tures. After jumping to safetyover a barbed wire fence, they es-caped detection for nearly a day.
They thanked a jail guard in asarcastic note, and the guard lat-er committed suicide in appar-ent humiliation.
Espinosa, who twisted his
ankle, got only a few blocksaway and was busted Monday.
U.S. marshals tracked Bluntdown to a shabby $13-a-nightroom. They burst in as he and agirlfriend who shacked up withhim for a week took a shower.
Authorities said they werequizzing the woman to see if shehelped him get to Mexico orelude capture.
NEW YORKERS would supportcongestion pricing if the moneywent to mass transit — other-wise, they hate it, a poll revealed.
The Quinnipiac University pollreleased yesterday also foundthat city voters prefer MayorBloomberg’s congestion pricingplan to putting tolls on the EastRiver bridges.
Bloomberg proposed chargingcars $8 to enter Manhattan be-low 86th St. on weekdays, an op-tion that just 37% of voters polledwould support — though it jumpsto 60% if the revenue is ear-marked for mass transit.
Only 25% of voters would sup-port tolls on the East River bridg-es — and given the choice, theywould pick congestion pricingover tolls, 43% to 35%.
A city-state commission study-ing those options will hold sevenpublic hearings around the fiveboroughs and the suburbs start-ing Wednesday. The City Counciland Albany must still sign off onany plan.
A $4 toll on all the free bridgesinto Manhattan would raise $859million, versus just $420 millionfor congestion pricing — butwould be much less likely to winpolitical support, experts said. Adam Lisberg
Congest plan wins– if cash for transit
OOPS, THEY did it again!NYC Transit put out a press re-
lease Wednesday announcingthere would be no weekday ex-press trains running on the No. 7line — from Monday until Feb. 29.
But the all-local service actuallykicks in this morning on the line,which runs between Flushing,Queens, and Times Square. Afterthe initial release, the agency post-ed a corrected item on its Web sitewithout fanfare.
A spokesman yesterday said theerror was not repeated in postersplaced in stations to alert riders ofthe service disruptions beingcaused by track and signal work.
Express trains shave seven min-utes off the trip from one end ofthe line to the other, a NYC Transitspokesman said.
A year ago, the agency flubbed apublic information campaignabout a similar No. 7 line project,giving riders bad information inbrochures, posters and on the Website. Errors included posters featur-ing an abridged map with the Rtrain stopping at Grand Central.
The express service is beingshut down for the installation ofnew signal equipment and trackswitches. It also will result in atotal shutdown of No. 7 train ser-vice during five weekends, be-tween Main St., Flushing, andWoodside/61st St. starting tomor-row
The Long Island Rail Road willprovide free shuttle trains, andNYC Transit will also have freeshuttle buses to provide alternateservice. Pete Donohue
They meantto say: 7 alllocal TODAY
Fugitive Otis Blunt is escorted out of terminal at Kennedy Airportyesterday after flying in from Mexico City. Photo by Anthony DelMundo
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