LAKEPORT – Sheriff's officials are looking for a Lake County Jail inmate who walked away from a work assignment on Wednesday afternoon.

Leticia Flores Batres, 34, of Santa Rosa, a minimum security inmate assigned to Lake County Animal Care and Control, was last seen by animal control staff cleaning kennels with fellow inmates at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Captain James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported.

About a half hour after she was last seen, Animal Care and Control – which is now located next to the Lake County Jail – notified jail staff that Batres was missing after searching the area, Bauman said.

After conducting their own search of the Animal Control and jail grounds – which included a formal count of the jail housing units – jail staff confirmed Batres had walked away from her work assignment outside of the jail facility, said Bauman.

Several sheriff’s patrol units responded to the apparent escape and commenced with an extensive search of the area for Batres. Bauman said that, a short time into the search, one deputy located the jail-issued denim shirt rolled up and discarded behind the Animal Care and Control facility along with her jail identification tag.

All potential routes leading away from the animal control and jail facilities were thoroughly searched but Batres had yet to be located late Wednesday, according to Bauman.

Batres is described as a Hispanic female adult, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 135 pounds, with medium length black hair and brown eyes. Bauman said her tattoos include a “band” on her left ankle, a heart on her upper right arm, and “Flores” on her back. She is believed to be still dressed in blue denim jail issued pants, a white T-shirt and jail-issued shoes.

Batres was classified as a minimum security inmate who was booked on May 29 for a Lakeport Police Department bench warrant for transportation of a controlled substance, Bauman said. She was serving a 365-day sentence and had an Immigration and Naturalization hold placed on her.

Bauman said Batres has an alias of Leticia Hernandez Flores. Officials recently discovered she also has an outstanding misdemeanor warrant of arrest out of Sonoma County for contempt of court and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Leticia Batres should immediately notify the Lake County Sheriff’s Department at 263-2690.

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