By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Ronald Tackman, the dapper escape artist who managed to elude court house guards last month by posing as a lawyer in a three-piece suit, shedded his bespoke look Wednesday for a bright orange jail jumpsuit.
At a morning hearing on his high-profile escape from Manhattan Criminal Court, Tackman, a reported crack addict whose mom still lives on the Upper East Side, also had some new friends — an escort of court and correction officers.
He was impossible to miss, handcuffed and clad in his orange outfit with the letters "DOC" printed on the back of his loose-fitting jacket. The Department of Corrections insignia was also etched vertically on each pant leg.
He had two corrections officers from the emergency services unit at his sides at all times. When he entered the courtroom, several court officers surrounded him for additional security.
"He's brought in with two big, burly corrections officers who don't let them out of their sight," said Joseph Heinzmann, Tackman's attorney, outside the courtroom. "He's constantly being watched."
Tackman was expressionless, but appeared to share a laugh with the team of guards around him minutes before he was brought before the judge.
The escape artist is being kept in a special high security ward at Riker's Island, according to Heinzmann.
On Sept. 30, Tackman, in court on robbery charges, managed to sneak away from custody after a guard assumed he was a lawyer because the career criminal was well-dressed. While he was on the run, he stopped by his mother's apartment for a change of clothes. He neglected to tell her he was on the lam, according to news reports.
A city-wide dragnet was called out, and Tackman was re-arrested days later getting off a bus in Washington Heights, where he had been hiding out with a friend.
When he was caught, police said he was carrying "crack cocaine and a bag of wigs, costume makeup, phony beards and moustaches, self-tanner, a bogus passport and four gun-shaped cigarette lighters," the Daily News reported.
Wednesday's hearing was Tackman's second since he was caught. He was shackled and heavily-guarded then, too, the New York Post reported.
Tackman's case was adjourned until Nov. 17, and he will likely go to trial on both his robbery and escape charges. He also has an open robbery case in Queens.
At the time of his escape, he was facing life in prison for a long rap sheet of robberies and escape attempts.
"He continues to plead not guilty," Heinzmann said.
