By David Gambacorta
The Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — Alleged cop-killer Rasheed Scrugs was caught trying to undo his shackles with a paper clip before a court appearance earlier this week, authorities said.
The career criminal, who allegedly gunned down Officer John Pawlowski in 2009, made the daring move on Tuesday, after corrections officers had taken him from the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility to an area hospital for a medical procedure, said city prison spokesman Robert Eskind.
“He went in for a procedure, signed some paperwork and got back in the [prison] van,” Eskind said. Scrugs, 35, was in “full restraints,” he added, which meant his hands and feet were shackled together.
There was a lull for a few minutes as the guards waited for Philadelphia police to escort the van to Common Pleas Court, where prospective jurors were going to be questioned by prosecutors and defense attorneys about Scrugs’ upcoming murder trial.
But all of a sudden, “one of our officers noticed that he was fumbling with something in his hands,” Eskind said.
Scrugs was told to open his hands and was ordered out of the van. Eskind said the corrections officers found the object that he had been fiddling with: a bent-open paper clip.
After the paper clip was confiscated, Scrugs was taken to court.
It was unclear yesterday if he will face criminal charges for Tuesday’s antics. A representative of the District Attorney’s Office could not be reached for comment.
Eskind said prison officials have been closely monitoring Scrugs at CFCF, where he is being held in solitary confinement because of the high-profile nature of his case.
When this reporter asked if he had caused any trouble at the prison, Eskind declined to comment.
Scrugs’ attorney, David Rudenstein, did not return a request for comment last night.
John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said Scrugs “started to ramp up his antics” earlier this week when he indicated that he didn’t want to appear in court.
“He’s a savage,” McNesby said. “They should have finished him off on the street. Now we have to deal with antics.”
Scrugs allegedly shot Pawlow-ski, 25, in the chest at Broad Street and Olney Avenue on Feb. 13, 2009, after Scrugs harassed and threatened a cabdriver.
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