ELIZABETH — A man who fled Superior Court in Elizabeth on Thursday because he was terrified of being arrested, prompting a half-hour police manhunt that ended atop the marquee of the downtown Ritz Theater, is now in Union County Jail. Yasan A. James-Villasana, 25, became agitated after learning he would be served with a restraining order during his 2...
A file photo of the Ritz theater in Elizabeth, where Yasan A. James-Villasana ended up on the roof after fleeing from court. ELIZABETH — A man who fled Superior Court in Elizabeth on Thursday because he was terrified of being arrested, prompting a half-hour police manhunt that ended atop the marquee of the downtown Ritz Theater, is now in Union County Jail.
Yasan A. James-Villasana, 25, became agitated after learning he would be served with a restraining order during his 2 p.m. meeting with a domestic violence hearing officer, according to Undersheriff Vincent DeTrolio. When the Elizabeth man was instructed by a sheriff’s officer to sit and wait, he instead bolted.
The officer quickly broadcast his escape over the radio, and more than a dozen sheriff’s officers and Elizabeth patrolmen responded. As James-Villasana ducked between buildings outside the courthouse, the officers tracked him over several blocks to East Jersey Street, DeTrolio said.
There, several people working in an office building across the street from the Ritz Theater waved down the officers from an open window, shouting they had seen the man walking on top of the theater’s marquee, DeTrolio said.
"He’s been given the nickname ‘Spiderman’ here, because we just cannot figure out how he got up on the roof," the undersheriff said today.
Officers ran into a neighboring building, squeezing out a window and over a fire escape to search for James-Villasana, who they finally discovered crouched in a dark storage space, DeTrolio said.
But because a door had locked behind them and there was no exit to the street, officers led the handcuffed James-Villasana back up the fire escape and on top of the theater’s marquee. Elizabeth firefighters then used a ladder and bucket to lower all five men about 30 feet to the ground.
James-Villasana has been charged with obstruction of justice and possession of less than 50 grams of marijuana, found during a later search of his car parked outside the courthouse, authorities said. He is being held on $500 bail.