College Counselor Surrenders to Authorities After 4 Decades as Fugitive

Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth, a former faculty member and student counselor at Washtenaw Community College, in Ann Arbor, Mich., surrendered to California authorities on Thursday, after more than 40 years of living as a fugitive. Mr. Bridgeforth allegedly shot a police officer in 1968. He pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon in 1969 but fled before being sentenced. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Bridgeforth fled briefly to Africa but then returned to the United States. In 1978 he got a job as a custodian at the community college under the alias of Cole Jordan. He then worked his way up to faculty member and student counselor, after earning a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State University in 1986 and a master’s degree at Eastern Michigan University in 1993, according to AnnArbor.com, a local news source. A spokeswoman for the college said it did not have any knowledge of his status as a fugitive. Mr. Bridgeforth, now 67, resigned from his faculty post last week, she said.