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MIDDLETOWN — Middletown police found a prisoner hidden in a small hole created by 40-foot-tall paper bundles after the man escaped from court Monday morning.

Donald Fugate was located by a police dog in the former Sorg Paper Co. factory at shortly after noon Monday, May 12, about an hour after he ran from Middletown Municipal Court. More than 20 officers from the Middletown Division of Police and the Butler County Sheriff's Office participated in the search, according to Maj. Mark Hoffman. The sheriff's helicopter also assisted in the search.

"We knew that he was barefoot so we didn't think that he'd go too far," he said. Fugate, who was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, had been seen near the factory, just a couple of blocks from the municipal building.

Hoffman said he wasn't sure how Fugate had escaped from court, but that he was not shackled when he appeared in court at about 11 a.m. Monday.

"It would not be normal for him to be shackled," said Hoffman, adding that the inmate's charges were non-violent offenses for drug abuse-heroin and falsification.

Fugate will likely be charged with additional offenses related to his escape, he said.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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