A Boston man has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for escaping from a residential re-entry center where he was serving the remainder of his sentence for drug distribution. Derek Rego, 37, received the sentence from U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton. Following his prison term, Rego will undergo three years of supervised release.
Rego also faced an additional eight-month prison term for violating conditions of supervised release related to a previous federal drug trafficking conviction. This sentence will run concurrently with the escape charge. In September 2024, Rego pleaded guilty to one count of escape after being indicted in September 2020.
Initially sentenced in September 2012 to ten years for cocaine distribution, Rego was transferred on January 8, 2020, from a correctional institution to a residential re-entry center (RRC) in Boston. The transfer aimed to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence until June 5, 2020.
Before this transfer, Rego signed a furlough application in October 2019 acknowledging that he remained under the custody of the Attorney General while on furlough status. While residing at the RRC, he was employed and permitted to work.
On March 25, 2020, after reporting that two co-workers tested positive for COVID-19, Rego was instructed by RRC staff to quarantine at an approved location for fourteen days. He was informed about receiving random phone calls and visits during this period to ensure compliance and was required to return on April 9, 2020.
Though initially compliant with quarantine requirements, RRC staff could not contact Rego on April 3 through either spot checks or phone calls. He failed to return by April's end and remained unaccounted for nearly a month until arrested on May 4 in Boston on unrelated domestic violence charges later dismissed.
The announcement came from United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Brian Kyes, United States Marshal for Massachusetts; and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox. The case prosecution involved Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus, David G. Tobin and Lauren Maynard from the Major Crimes Unit.