Did Prison Pen Pal Make Mom Turn Bad?

LANSING, Mich. - On the day Ruth Olin answered a lonely hearts ad from prisoner Shayarto Perkins, she hoped to find companionship, maybe love.

Instead, family members and law-enforcement officials say, she found a partner as she transformed from a mild-mannered single mother and civil servant to a gun-toting, mean-mouthed renegade.

Olin, 43, was arraigned on a felony firearm charge this month in Clinton County District Court, accused of stealing a helicopter Aug. 14 in a failed bid to free Perkins, 28, from the Kinross Correctional Facility on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The former civil-service manager never made it to Kinross, crashing the copter in Houghton Lake after stealing it in Grand Ledge.

She was being held in Clinton County's jail, awaiting a hearing on five charges that could lead to 17 years in prison.

Olin's apparent spiral from upstanding citizen to accused criminal has stunned family members, who knew little about her boyfriend.

"I was flabbergasted," said brother Gary Glassbrook, 48, who lives in Dryden. "I always thought she was a pretty straight arrow. When this happened, I just couldn't believe it."

Olin was a quiet woman who lived a quiet life and grew up in rural Metamora in Lapeer County.

She started as a secretary at the state civil-service department 25 years ago and rose to a departmental administrator in recruitment, making $57,000 a year.

She didn't date much in high school, family members said. Two marriages ended in divorce, including one to a Nigerian immigrant who relatives said never lived in her home.

More than a year ago, she confided to her son, Devere Edwards, that she was lonely and wanted to do something for herself. Edwards said she answered a personal ad Perkins placed in a newspaper.

"I thought she was crazy," said Edwards, 17. "I didn't understand why she went to that extreme to find anybody."

Gradually, the mother who had taken Edwards to Red Lobster and watched him play in basketball tournaments began to change, relatives and investigators said. At Perkins' request, she lost weight. She ran up thousands of dollars in collect phone calls from him and had calls from her home phone forwarded to work.

She bought him clothes and was banned in February from the Macomb Regional Correctional Facility after she was caught in unauthorized sexual contact with Perkins in the prison visiting room, officials said.

She spent about $7,000 on flying lessons to learn to pilot a helicopter. She obtained a fake driver's license under the name of Jessie Stafford, which she used to visit Perkins when he moved to a new prison.

"He's a controlling-type person," Edwards said. "For some reason, she just gave in to it."

He said he pleaded with his mother to get rid of Perkins but was met with curses or punishment.

"She became fixated on him and was obsessed with him," said Mike Clarizio, assistant Clinton County prosecutor.

Olin was suspended from her job for 30 days in May, according to Theodore Benca, civil-service deputy director for labor relations. Perkins' repeated calls, which often turned into arguments, disturbed her co-workers, according to employees who asked not to be identified.

When Olin was arrested two days after the stolen helicopter crashed, police said they found a large amount of cash, radio equipment, two fake driver's licenses and a semiautomatic .30-caliber rifle.

Investigators said she also had sneaked a .22-caliber derringer pistol into prison for Perkins, who concealed it in the soles of his shoes. Both were armed for the escape attempt, the investigators said.

"I think this guy paid her some attention somehow, and she was so desperate she fell into it," Glassbrook said. "I feel sorry that she had to resort to that."