# Traffic stop nets 28-year fugitive



## Gil (Jun 15, 1998)

Traffic stop nets 28-year fugitive
Austin, TX, Mar. 17 (UPI) -- A traffic stop for an expired registration tag allowed an Austin, Texas, police officer to solve a 28-year-old mystery and return a prison escapee to jail. 

Steve Johnson, 52, awaited word Thursday from North Carolina authorities regarding extradition after Austin police determined he was an escapee who had made a new life for himself since he fled prison in 1977, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Austin Police officer Ryan Huling pulled Johnson over Tuesday night for a license tag violation. He checked for outstanding warrants and found one from North Carolina. Authorities confirmed Johnson to be an escapee through fingerprints.

Johnson was found to actually be Raymond Scully, who was convicted in 1975 of selling drugs and escaped from a prison bus in 1977.

He told the newspaper he'd lived in Arizona and Massachusetts before settling in Texas. He met his future wife in Phoenix, but didn't tell her of his past until three years into their marriage when they were to meet his parents and he needed to explain why they had a different name.

Johnson told the American-Statesman he had no hard feelings against Huling, calling the officer "the most intelligent and thorough cop in Texas."


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