GRAND FORKS, ND (trfnews.i234.me) — On December 26, 2024, Collin Wade Posey, a 32-year-old resident of Fort Totten, was sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to escape custody. Posey had been arrested in July on multiple local and federal warrants.
Posey pleaded guilty to the following charges:
- Class C felony escape-felony arrest or charge
- Class C felony possessing contraband useful for escape
- Class A misdemeanor criminal mischief causing willful, reckless damage between $2,000 and $10,000 or intentional damage between $100 and $2,000
On July 28, while in police custody at Altru Hospital for medical treatment, an anonymous tip indicated that Posey planned to escape that evening. Subsequently, he was relocated to another room and searched. Items discovered in his previous room included a butter knife, a disconnected hospital phone, a pair of socks, and an empty tape dispenser with a jagged edge. Investigations revealed that Posey had used these items to saw through a handrail to which he was handcuffed, causing over $1,000 in damage.
The court sentenced Posey to five years with the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, followed by three years of supervised probation. This sentence is to be served consecutively with any federal sentence imposed in an ongoing drug trafficking case, but concurrently with multiple state cases that are either recently closed or still pending. Posey received no credit for time served.
Additionally, Posey’s final pending case in Grand Forks County, related to an alleged standoff with law enforcement and the resulting damages, is scheduled for a change of plea at 9 a.m. on February 3.
I’m Chris Harper, reporting for trfnews.i234.me