PRISONER PUTS ON A SUIT & WALKS OUT OF THE MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT!

A career crook awaiting trial on numerous robbery counts escaped from Manhattan Supreme Court in broad daylight Wednesday - apparently by masquerading as a lawyer, sources said.
Ronald Tackman, who turns 55 on Thursday, has been on the lam since 9:15 a.m., and his real lawyer warned he'll be hard to catch.

"I don't know where he is, but he's a very intelligent man," said Tackman's lawyer, Joseph Heinzmann.
Tackman, who was charged in Manhattan with five separate counts of robbery and another robbery in Queens, has the ability to blend in with the crowd, a source said.

"He is the quintessential average-looking white guy," the source said. "No distinguishing features or marks."

And Tackman has an extra incentive to avoid being caught.

"He's facing life sentences both here and in Queens county" because he has prior felonies on his rap sheet, the source said.

David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the state court system, confirmed that Tackman escaped but declined to go into detail.

Tackman, who had been awaiting trial on Rikers Island, was "impeccably dressed" in a jacket and tie when he arrived for a pre-trial hearing on the 13th floor, the source said.

Somehow, Tackman managed to sneak down two flights to a holding area for prisoners awaiting trial - and where a court officer mistook him for a lawyer, according to the source.

"Counselor, what are you doing here?" the officer asked, the source said.

Another courthouse source said Tackman was not handcuffed and in a suit.

"The officer didn't even challenge him," the second source said. "He just walked out."

Once court officers realized Tackman had escaped and video showed him sauntering out of the north entrance to 100 Centre Street, they shut down the courthouse and wouldn't let anybody in or out.

They were holding a sheet bearing Tackman's photograph and description on which somebody failed to check the box next to the words "escape risk."
Tackman is not considered especially dangerous.

The source described Tackman's alleged crimes as "hit-and-run retail robberies" during which he put a finger in his pocket to make it look like he had a gun.

"He has a history of escape attempts from state prison," the source said.

Once, Tackman commandeered a corrections bus and tried to drive to freedom. "The guy is a legend," the source said.

In September 1985, Tackman was described as an "escape artist" by a corrections official after he tried to shoot his way out a prison van using a rubber-band powered zip gun fashioned out of metal tubing and a comb.

Tackman tried to take over the van as it was crossing the Brooklyn Bridge bound for Manhattan criminal court by firing two pellets that just missed hitting the corrections officers. He gave up when the guards pulled their guns.

In an earlier escape attempt, Tackman briefly took over another prison van by brandishing a "extremely realistic" but bogus gun carved out of soap.

Tackman made the guards stop the van and throw out their guns. Then he forced them to get in the back, where he locked them up with the other prisoners.