MONTREAL -- The lawyer for the son of former Hells Angels boss Maurice (Mom) Boucher had a clear message for his client Wednesday: surrender as quickly as possible.
Francis Boucher, 39, walked out of Montreal's Bordeaux jail in broad daylight Monday, two months before the end of a sentence he was serving for uttering death threats against police officers.
There has been speculation Boucher was able to get out with help from someone on the inside but his lawyer said he does not believe that was the case.
"I was informed by Bordeaux (90 minutes after it happened) that it was an administrative error," Dimitrios Strapatsas told The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
Strapatsas said he's afraid Boucher's notorious last name will lead to police overreacting in the event of any showdown.
"Police confrontations in the past have turned out bad," he said.
Strapatsas added that provincial police have told him a tactical unit is actively looking for Boucher.
He said he has no means to contact Boucher and his client has not tried to get in touch with him either.
"If he does, my message is very clear: 'please surrender yourself as quickly as possible in a safe, timely manner'," Strapatsas said.
Various reports have suggested Boucher posed as an inmate with the same family name.
During Wednesday's question period in the national assembly, the Opposition asked Public Security Minister Lise Theriault why Boucher was on the run.
Her only response was that two inquiries are underway -- one administrative and the other by provincial police.
"I think that one person freed in error is one person too many," Theriault reiterated, adding that the same thing happened when the Parti Quebecois was in power.
On Tuesday, a Quebec prison guard was suspended just hours after Theriault said there appeared to have been a "stratagem" behind Boucher's escape.
Boucher's 117-day sentence was due to be completed at the end of May.
He was previously sentenced to 10 years for gangsterism, conspiracy to commit murder and drug-trafficking.
Boucher was a member of the Rockers, a Hells puppet gang.
Maurice Boucher was a household name in the late 1990s and early 2000s because of the bloody battle between the Hells and the Rock Machine as well as subsequent high-profile legal proceedings.
Boucher was sentenced to life in prison in 2002 after being convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of prison guards that were aimed at destabilizing the justice system.
