Pod Insights Crime Weekly S3 Ep306: Crime Weekly News: Ex-Police Chief Escapes Prison in Cop Disguise About this episode Former Gateway, Arkansas, police chief, Grant Hardin, fled from the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock on May 25, 2025. Hardin, convicted of the 2017 murder of James Appleton and a 1997 rape, managed to escape by wearing a makeshift law enforcement uniform, raising serious concerns about prison security protocols. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:14 Derrick Levasseur? Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.
0:17 Stephanie Harlowe? And I'm Stephanie Harlow.
0:19 Derrick Levasseur? So today, as you can probably tell from the title, this is not something we hear about every day. Prison escapes and then it being a former police officer. As a former officer myself, I can tell you that this is a scary situation because this person knows our tactics and techniques, they know our policies and procedures, they know how we operate, they know how we think, and this is not just a police officer, this is a former police chief. So what am I talking about? Well, Grant Harden, a disgraced former chief convicted of murder and rape, just escaped from an Arkansas prison. He allegedly dressed up like a cop and rolled a cart right out the front of the facility. There's actually a picture of it, you can see it. I don't know how this happens. So Stephanie, I wanted to ask you,
1:02 Derrick Levasseur? you see this situation, you know about law enforcement, obviously there's some bad actors in law enforcement already, but as a civilian, when you see something like this, are you more concerned knowing that this person is not only what they're capable of, but also their background? Is that more concerning to you as someone who's out there conducting their business on a day-to-day basis?
1:25 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, yeah, of course. And I want to address one thing quickly because, you know, you always say if criminals were smart, they wouldn't get caught.
1:34 Derrick Levasseur? It's true. Most of the time, we're looking for the mistakes.
1:36 Stephanie Harlowe? Right. Some criminals are smart, at least in this area, right?
1:41 Derrick Levasseur? At least knowledgeable.
1:42 Stephanie Harlowe? Knowledgeable enough to know how to not make the mistakes that would get most criminals caught.
1:48 Derrick Levasseur? Right.
1:48 Stephanie Harlowe? And if you look at this, according to reports, like you said, Harden had disguised himself in a makeshift law enforcement uniform and then he pushed a cart filled with utility materials to slip past security. Now, officials have confirmed he wasn't wearing any official Department of Corrections gear and all of that equipment, at least for their prison, was accounted for, so like... Did he get this stuff from? It was a makeshift, so he kind of just, he was able to look enough like a corrections officer in order to to trick the actual corrections officers. So that's concerning, even without a legitimate uniform. And I also want to talk a little bit about his history, because it's very disturbing. Like, I think this person might be
2:33 Stephanie Harlowe? a psychopath, to be honest with you.
2:35 Derrick Levasseur? He's a scary person, and I'm gonna do this a couple of times throughout the episode. This will be the first time. So the reason we're covering this is in many cases, there's an opportunity to talk about the history and learn from it. This episode today is more of a BOLO, a be on the lookout. So throughout this episode, I'll keep doing this, but right now, if you're on YouTube, the wanted poster is up on the screen. But for everybody on the audio version here, Grant Harden was born December 6, 1968. He's 56 years old. He's a white male, approximately six feet tall, 259 pounds. So again, if you're on audio, do a quick Google search so you can see what he looks like, especially if you're from that area. We need to be on the lookout for this guy. And if you do happen to see him, do not approach. As Stephanie's gonna tell you about right now, his history,
3:20 Derrick Levasseur? this is a dangerous individual who's out on the loose and probably has no plans on going back to prison and will do everything in his power to ensure that doesn't happen, including taking someone's life again. So just wanted to put that in there, sprinkle it throughout the episode. That's the first time I'll do it again, but if you're from there, be on the lookout. Law enforcement needs your help.
3:42 Stephanie Harlowe? So Harden's criminal history is as follows. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of 59-year-old James Appleton, a city employee. Appleton was shot in the head while sitting in his car, speaking on the phone with his brother-in-law, who was the mayor at the time. Now, while serving his sentence for that murder, DNA evidence linked Harden to a 1997 rape case involving an elementary school teacher in Rogers, Arkansas. This victim was assaulted at gunpoint in a school bathroom during a community event, and Harden was subsequently convicted and received an additional 50-year sentence.
4:20 Stephanie Harlowe? Once again, like I said, I think he's kind of a psychopath. I don't really understand how you could behave as a law enforcement officer. You'd have to wear a mask. You'd have to wear a mask of somebody who actually cared about justice, who actually, you know, had a distaste for crime and criminals. And this person was a criminal disguised as somebody who was trying to stop criminals. And so who knows?
4:44 Derrick Levasseur? The leader of this organization, right? He was the chief of police. Now, I don't know how big the police department was where he works. There's some departments out there where all they have is a chief and one patrolman. So it doesn't hold the same weight, but nevertheless...
4:58 Stephanie Harlowe? He was the police chief of Gateway, Arkansas, which is a small town near the Missouri border. So probably not a huge, probably not a huge police department. But you know what this kind of area, the Missouri, Arkansas area is known for is there's a lot of drugs, right? A lot of things happening that I guarantee you this guy looked the other way on. And not only that, most likely took part in facilitating it and benefited financially from it.
5:27 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, and I did a quick search here. It doesn't look like the police department statistics where he worked are available. So that just tells me it's probably, like you said, a very small department because most larger agencies disclose that information, how many sworn and non sworn personnel you have for budgetary reasons, for transparency. So this might be a very small PD. Either way, still very alarming.
5:48 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, absolutely. And you have to wonder, you know, what kind of, what kind of things happened under his tenure?
5:54 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah. What was he willing to look the other way on? Yeah.
5:56 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah. How many criminals got away with things? How many, you know, how many people were put in danger because he just truly doesn't care about crime happening because he is part of crime happening?
6:09 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, that's, that's the most alarming thing about a lot of these cases, including, I would say, Karen Reed, right? It's, it's not necessarily the crime itself, or even the victim in many cases. It's the fact that individuals who are put in these powerful positions to take away the freedom of other human beings are committing crimes like this, or even having conversations like we saw with Proctor on text messaging. They're supposed to be the best of us. So it's a complete break of trust from the, from the community to law enforcement because... The reality is there are people working right now who should not be police officers. So when you're given actual examples of it, it's alarming. It's alarming for you. It's alarming for me.
6:50 Derrick Levasseur? And that's why I take such a, an interest in it because I'm trying to show that there are good guys out there. And it's, it's difficult to do that with things like this and things like, you know, even in other cases where they didn't kill someone, but they're still just very unprofessional. So whenever you see something like this, obviously the concern today is to find him as fast as possible. But also the bigger macro perspective, as you're alluding to is this guy is in a position where he was involved in other crimes with, you know, that he might've been investigating. And, and how did he conduct those investigations if this was the mindset he was approaching them with? How deep does this run?
7:30 Stephanie Harlowe? I mean, even if it's something as small as, and then the people are sure, yeah, the people of his community, I'm sure will agree. Even if it was something as small as pulling somebody over for a DWI and maybe this person is close to him or knows somebody. And then he's like, ah, just let him go. And now this person gets in the car again and kills somebody because he keeps driving drunk. Even if it's something as simple as drugs and, you know, this guy Harden is getting kickbacks. And then you have parents whose children in the community are dying from drug overdoses because he's not doing anything to stop drugs. Even if it's not violent crime, even if it's not letting murderers and rapists go.
8:06 Derrick Levasseur? Not to that extreme.
8:07 Stephanie Harlowe? Right. It, it still has such a negative effect on the community and the people whose tax dollars paid to employ him. And not only that, who looked at him as the arm of the law that they could trust to keep things in order while they go about their business. And they, you know, contribute to society in their own ways. He was supposed to keep up his end of the deal and he didn't.
8:26 Derrick Levasseur? No, he didn't. And it boils down to one word, ethics, right? Everything comes down to ethics and the discretion that officers have. I, I, we joke about taking a coffee, right? For free. And you joked about it. Have you ever done it before? And it's, it's deeper than that. It's bigger than that because if someone is willing to take a coffee, and I'm not being a hypocrite. I've definitely taken a coffee or a donut and not paid for it after offering multiple times to pay for it. But to not, not to make it extreme because I'll have cops in the comments coming back at this, you have to ask where the line is. Does it stop at coffee and donuts? Or does it go to the point of like you're saying where if I know the person, even though they committed the same crime that I just arrested someone else for that I didn't know a week prior,
9:09 Derrick Levasseur? if I'm not black and white in my discretion, that's a problem. It's either yay or nay. It's binary. It shouldn't, it shouldn't be subjective in most cases. So there isn't a gradient, and this is obviously an extreme case. You have a rapist and a murderer. I mean, that's a, I don't think that most people out there in that position are doing that, but it still poses the question, if there's one of them out there, how many more are there? Over a million police officers in the country.
9:34 Stephanie Harlowe? He got arrested after a 2017 murder, but then they find his DNA linked to a 1997 rape case. So from 1997 to 2017, 20 years, this man sat as a police officer, knowing what he had done to that teacher, that elementary school teacher in that bathroom during a community day. And now every time a rapist comes across his desk, is he looking at this person as a bad person? Or is he looking at this person as, oh, he's just like me? What did he do wrong? He has the right to take that.
10:08 Derrick Levasseur? You're not wrong. And I want to qualify here, just so we're, this is coming out on Wednesday. So this is a few days later than when we're recording it. And as far as the escape itself, so when you're going to see this video, or when you're going to hear this audio, you're going to be looking at May 28th, right? The escape happened on May 25th at approximately 3:40 PM. So there could be, I'm hoping by the time this audio and video comes out, he's already been captured. So we'll have an update in the description if that is the case. But we want to put this information out there as fast as we can, but with turnaround and editing, that's just the quickest we can do it. So there may be an update. I hope there is before this all comes out.
10:50 Stephanie Harlowe? And if there's not, understand that he's still on the loose and understand that, like Derek said, you should be on the lookout for this person. And we will put the appropriate phone numbers in the description box and in the show notes. To call
11:02 Derrick Levasseur? The wanted person's up there.
11:04 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah.
11:04 Derrick Levasseur? And so I want to change gears for one second because yes, I want you to be on the lookout. But how are we going to catch them? And when I say how are we, I'm talking about police officers, right? You guys are part time detectives as well. We got to put our thinking caps on. So as I said at the top of the show, this person thinks like us. And when I mean us, we're all investigators at this point. And I almost think the approach is has to be reverse, right? We have to think what they're going to think we're going to do and do the opposite. So you have to be almost unorthodox in your approach. Yeah, we're going to do the traditional stuff. We're going to monitor his friends and family. We're going to look for a digital footprint. We're going to look at cameras. We're going to try to track him down through that.
11:45 Derrick Levasseur? But if that doesn't work, you have to anticipate what he's going to do and understand his mindset, because that's how you catch the bad guy. Is putting yourself in their shoes. Well, this bad guy happens to have been a cop. So you know what he's going to be thinking. You know how he's going to approach it. You know that he's going to try and avoid where we would be, roadblocks, etc. So we have to go to places where we wouldn't look usually, right? We have to think outside the box because more than likely
12:12 Stephanie Harlowe? Cops have to think that way? Or do cops have to kind of look at it as in if I'm a cop and this is me escaping from prison and I knew where to go where the cops wouldn't look? That's where I should go. Yeah.
12:23 Derrick Levasseur? That's what I'm saying. So you have to think about how you would do it and do the opposite. So what we would normally implement as far as tactics and strategies, what we would think you don't have to do or what wouldn't be a priority, I would make that the priority. Right? I would look at the map and I would say if this were me and I didn't know that this other person was involved in law enforcement before, this is what I would normally do. Because more than likely, that's what Harden's going to be doing. He's going to be looking at it from the perspective of law enforcement and saying more than likely, this is what they're going to do based on my experiences. So we have to, we have to implement an unorthodox approach with him so that we can maybe catch him sleeping, maybe catch him lacking in the sense that
13:05 Derrick Levasseur? he's going to try and avoid areas of concern that law enforcement is going to be monitoring. And therefore we have to try to do something innovative to catch him because It's not saying he's smart, right? Like you had said, if they were smart, we wouldn't catch them. It's about being knowledgeable. He knows what we would normally do and therefore more than likely, he's going to avoid those situations.
13:26 Stephanie Harlowe? I also think it's important that they look who he was talking to in the months before his arrest. Because it is very likely he might have some help on the outside, maybe a drop bag there for him with cash, even a fake ID, something, a disguise. You know, this guy could put on a wig. He's bald. In the picture, so he could put on like a toupee, change his appearance, put some glasses on, have a fake ID, have some cash. He could be out of the country as we speak, by the way. Complete, because if I'm him, I'm not staying in the country.
13:56 Derrick Levasseur? That's the way you gotta go. He's gotta try to get to the border, for sure. He's gotta try to get to the border because that's the only chance he has at this point. And he does have a distinctive look, if you're seeing it on YouTube. So he's definitely going to try to change his appearance. I would say at this point, he's growing out his facial hair. He's doing different things to try to alter his appearance. He's not going to be eating a ton, so he's probably going to lose weight pretty rapidly. So these are the things you have to consider as you're going forward with this investigation.
14:22 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and I just don't see somebody like him making the attempt to escape. This wasn't just something he was like, huh, woke up one day and said, I think I'll escape today. He planned this. And there's no, there's no way he doesn't have a plan about what he does and where he goes next.
14:36 Derrick Levasseur? He's not sitting around thinking, okay, I just got out. Now what do I do? You're right. He has a plan of approach and time is of the essence. He's prob, if I'm him, I'm moving as fast as I can because they're creating boundaries, they're creating perimeters, and they're trying to search those areas. You have to get outside those virtual perimeters so that they're searching a grid. And theoretically, they're searching a grid that you've already passed. That's, you have to stay ahead of them because if you sit down, I don't know if this is going to apply to certain people here, but Fortnite, right? You have this big area and the map starts to get smaller and you want to be inside that circle as it gets smaller. This is the opposite. You want to be outside that perimeter. You want to be outside that circle so that when they think, okay, based on his, you know, walking distance, how far he could go,
15:20 Derrick Levasseur? this is the amount of square footage we have to cover. You want to try to be outside of that. Grid patterns, things like that. You want to try to be above that. So when they start looking, they're wasting time in an area that you've already passed through.
15:33 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, I think he's just gonna get the hell out of the country. Honestly, because he's knowing like, and, and please understand, he's got nothing to lose at this point.
15:42 Derrick Levasseur? He's in prison for life.
15:43 Stephanie Harlowe? He has zero to lose.
15:44 Derrick Levasseur? That's what I'm saying. He'll kill anybody he can to get away.
15:47 Stephanie Harlowe? If he needs to get transportation, he'll kill somebody to get transportation. If he needs money, he'll kill somebody to get money. If he thinks that somebody's looking at him weird and sees that person like lift their phone to their head and, and he just in his mind thinks they're acting sketchy, he will kill that person. So also be on the lookout. But be on the lookout from if you see this guy and you think you see him, don't just pick your phone up and start calling the police. Get out of earshot, act completely normal. Don't, don't make him see that you've noticed him or spotted him. Just, you know, don't be suspicious. Don't be suspicious.
16:21 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah. And one other area concern that we should all be considering, especially when it comes to safety, I'm talking about the men and women in law enforcement right now, as well as they're trying to hunt this guy down. Someone like this, who has a very dark past, they have to know they are, they're always looking over their shoulder. And in many instances, people like this will have a bug out bag. If they get caught or they feel like they're about to get caught, they'll put a bag together with money, you know, potentially a passport, a gun, ammunition, whatever, right? Something where they can be on the move for a short period of time and have the things they need. So he may have a grab bag or a bug out bag somewhere that was buried or something that he knows about, that he may be trying to get to. He was from Arkansas. He was in a prison in Arkansas.
17:05 Derrick Levasseur? I don't know how far it would be away from it. But if it's close enough, he may be trying to get to that. So you might, you could be looking at this and well, how much of a danger is he? He's an overweight guy. He's in his 50s, whatever, right? He may have a gun. He may have had a gun out there hidden for something just like this. Maybe not escaping prison, but if he had to avoid law enforcement because he knows what he's done in the past. So he knows it's just, they're one day away from capturing him. He's probably always considering that element. So that is also something we have to consider. When you're going forward, not only as a civilian, but as law enforcement, we have to consider him at this point armed and dangerous.
17:41 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah. Um, I also want to point out, first of all. This guy's a creep, okay? In both of his mug shots, he's got a smirk on.
17:49 Derrick Levasseur? Okay, do you know who he looks like, by the way?
17:50 Stephanie Harlowe? Who does he look like?
17:52 Derrick Levasseur? If you nail this, if you read into my brain right now and figure out who he looks like, people, put him up on the screen right now, who is it? When I say it, it's gonna shock you, unless you haven't seen the show, and that would be shocking in and of itself.
18:03 Stephanie Harlowe? I, he looks like every, you know, middle-aged.
18:07 Derrick Levasseur? Okay, if you're watching this video, pause it right now, do not cheat. Who does he look like? Okay, we're back, the Penguin, Colin Farrell.
18:17 Derrick Levasseur? Tell me he doesn't without the scar. Now you cannot unsee it.
18:20 Stephanie Harlowe? Yes.
18:21 Derrick Levasseur? Right?
18:22 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, absolutely.
18:23 Derrick Levasseur? It's him. Especially the right photo, that is the Penguin.
18:27 Stephanie Harlowe? Yep. A, a, and you can see, you both see both photos, right?
18:31 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I can see both of them.
18:32 Stephanie Harlowe? There's two different mug shots. He's got the same exact, like, one-sided mouth smirk.
18:38 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah.
18:39 Stephanie Harlowe? In both pictures. He's a psychopath, and I also wanted to point out that he only actually served as Gateway's Police Chief. Wait, they only have a population of 436 people.
18:49 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, so it's a small PD, yep.
18:52 Stephanie Harlowe? He only served as their police chief for four months in early 2016. But before that, he had a checkered history at small police departments that dated back to the early 90s. So he was fired multiple times, he was accused of excessive force, poor performance, even falsifying police records. So this is a person who's been waving red flags since he, he popped on the scene. And somehow, because of whatever, falling through the cracks, I don't know. He kept getting jobs at small police departments, and then would have to be fired, or he would have issues there. And then he still gets a job as Gateway's Police Chief? With that kind of history?
19:34 Stephanie Harlowe? Gateway, I don't care, it, it, zero police chiefs are better than that dude.
19:38 Derrick Levasseur? I agree. Well, one more time, just so everyone's aware, Grant Harden is 56 years old, Caucasian male.
19:44 Stephanie Harlowe? And he looks like the Penguin.
19:45 Derrick Levasseur? Looks like the Penguin, approximately six feet tall, 259 pounds. He escaped from the North Central Unit in Arkansas on May 25th.
19:53 Stephanie Harlowe? It's Calico Rock.
19:54 Derrick Levasseur? Calico Rock, okay, that was on May 25th approximately 3:40 PM. If you happen to see an individual that that looks like him, do not approach, be a good witness, be a good note taker. Any information you can gather, gather it. Try to keep an eye on him if you can, but contact local authorities because local authorities, state authorities and federal authorities, including the Department of Corrections in Arkansas, they're all working this case, they're looking for tips. They may already have some tips and they're tracking them. So that little piece of information that you have may just put another pin on the map. So if you have something, call in, but above all else, do not approach and stay safe.
20:33 Stephanie Harlowe? Yes, absolutely.
20:34 Derrick Levasseur? Any final words from you about this scumbag?
20:36 Stephanie Harlowe? That's it, I'm just looking at him.
20:39 Derrick Levasseur? The Penguin?
20:40 Stephanie Harlowe? I really get such bad vibes from his face.
20:43 Derrick Levasseur? For anybody who hasn't watched The Penguin, Shannon, do me a favor. Throw up a side by side of his mugshot in The Penguin. People need to see this.
20:51 Stephanie Harlowe? It's a good show, by the way.
20:53 Derrick Levasseur? Amazing show. Colin Farrell, unbelievable on that show.
20:56 Stephanie Harlowe? Always been a great actor.
20:57 Derrick Levasseur? Not, didn't love the finale, won't spoil it for you guys. Didn't love the finale, but that's a different story for a different day. Guys, we appreciate you being here. Above all else, stay safe out there. We will see you later this week with part two of Darlie Routier. We had a lot of feedback on part one, everyone's very engaged. We have more to cover, so audio on Friday, video on Sunday and also bonus episode if you're on audio right now. If you're watching on YouTube, you've already seen it, but we did a bonus episode on the Diddy trial. That will be coming out, uh, actually it already came out. It should be out on audio as of yesterday, but let us know what you think about that. We're going to be doing that more often. Until later this week, everyone stay safe out there and we will see you soon.
21:37 Stephanie Harlowe? Bye.
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