Lawyer: State Hospital escapee may have gotten fake IDs, cash during off-campus trips

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Randall Saito may have gotten the fake IDs and thousands in cash he used to escape the State Hospital last year and flee to California from a nearby rehabilitation facility.

That’s according to his attorney, Michael Green.

Saito was sometimes driven to a facility near the hospital called the Koolau Clubhouse, where patients can be acclimated to the outside world.

Green believes that’s where a third party got Saito the items needed to make his elaborate getaway. He doesn’t believe it was a staffer or patient.

[Read the AG’s massive report on an admitted killer’s escape from Hawaii State Hospital]

[No state employees disciplined after investigation into admitted killer’s escape]

“I think it was an individual who knew someone on the inside who was there with Randall. Somebody set it up for him and when he was was there somebody came over, knew what he looked like or introduced themselves," he said.

"Apparently they may have gone to the bathroom and they gave him the money and the identification.”

Green says he’s told the person who set up the meeting with the third party owed Randy some favors.

The state Department of Health says it changed many policies since the escape, including not sending its patients to the clubhouse. Health Director Bruce Anderson called Saito’s escape a “wake-up call.”

After an administrative investigation, the state Attorney General said hospital employees were not directly responsible for the escape.

His criminal trial is expected to start in March and Green says Saito has said he’d rather die in prison than go back to the State Hospital.

Copyright 2018 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.