New Orleans sheriff halts reelection campaign as five jail escapees remain at large
WVUE, ORLEANS PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE, CNN
By Hanna Park, Cindy Von Quednow, CNN
(CNN) — Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, who oversees the jail where 10 inmates escaped last week, announced Tuesday she is suspending her reelection campaign, just hours after fielding tough questions from local leaders at a tense city council meeting.
“I am temporarily suspending my re-election campaign. I cannot spend a moment putting politics over your needs,” Hutson said in a statement posted on social media.
The sheriff’s announcement comes as her office faces increasing scrutiny over last week’s jailbreak – and as half of the 10 escaped inmates remain at large. A fifth escapee was recaptured Tuesday, and state police announced Wednesday that two individuals had been arrested on suspicion of assisting some of the inmates after the escape.
In her statement, Hutson pointed to the “immediate action” her office took after the escape, “including suspensions, an arrest, and full cooperation with the Attorney General’s investigation.” But Hutson acknowledged “a long road ahead of me to be fully satisfied that the OJC (Orleans Justice Center jail) and my deputies have the proper resources to perform their duties to the fullest extent the people of New Orleans deserve.”
Hutson did not address when she may resume her reelection campaign. The primary for the sheriff’s election is scheduled for early October.
Sheriff pushed for answers
Hutson’s campaign announcement followed a tense city council meeting earlier Tuesday where she faced questions about whether the jail’s persistent problems stem from inadequate funding or poor management. Hutson told the council she takes “full accountability” for the “failure” but also pointed to the alleged involvement of jail staff.
“There were procedural failures. And missed notifications. But there were also intentional wrongdoings. This was a coordinated effort aided by individuals inside our own agency who made the choice to break the law. One arrest has been made, and we are continuing to pursue everyone involved and that investigation is active and ongoing,” the sheriff said.
For nearly three hours during Tuesday’s city council meeting, members pressed Hutson and her aides about what officials described as disorganized and fragmented communication with other law enforcement agencies in the critical hours after the escape.
The sheriff and her aides acknowledged that some notifications to local law enforcement partners “were missed.”
Hutson added after the meeting that the jail was still operating with “outdated surveillance, aging infrastructure, blind spots in supervision and critical staffing shortages.”
“These vulnerabilities have been raised repeatedly in our funding requests and now, the consequences are undeniable,” she said in a statement.
The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections is deploying at least 10 seasoned auditors to the Orleans Justice Center this week to investigate the escape.
The audit will “concentrate on jail operations, such as overall jail security, jail staffing and jail policy and procedures,” Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary Gary Westcott said in a news release Tuesday.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry tasked the department to audit the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, to ensure they were in compliance with “conditions necessary to ensure the safe, efficient, effective and legal operation of a jail facility,” the release added.
The last audit of the facility by the department was in 2014, according to the agency.
Additionally, Landry on Wednesday issued an executive order “mandating an immediate and aggressive response across multiple state agencies” to address the escape, which he called a “major breach.”
He called for transparency and accountability in the jail facility and elsewhere in the state.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Wednesday visited Orleans Justice Center as part of the ongoing investigation into the escape.
The visit specifically focused on the cell and passageway the inmates used in their escape. But the tour left officials with multiple unanswered questions.
“There were deputies on the pods,” Murrill told CNN affiliate WDSU after the visit. “They’re present, they’re there … whether that was true last week I couldn’t tell you.”
Both Murrill and Williams say they will continue to investigate and there may be additional arrests. Williams told WDSU “certainly more than one person” was responsible for the security breach.
3 accused of assisting inmates
The arrested staff member Hutson referred to is Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. The Louisiana Attorney General’s office announced the arrest Tuesday.
Williams is accused of “willfully and maliciously” assisting with the jailbreak, according to an affidavit. He faces one count of malfeasance in office and 10 counts of being a principal to simple escape.
In an interview with Fox News, Murrill suggested that Williams’s involvement extended beyond the night of the escape. “We think that it was more than just that night,” she said. “I can’t really give all the details of times and dates, but we believe this person had multiple days of involvement.”
An agent with the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation described Williams as being initially “evasive and untruthful” before providing information, according to the affidavit.
The maintenance worker’s bond was set at $1.1 million, $100,000 for each charge he is facing, Murrill said in a social media post.
Williams said inmate Antoine Massey threatened to shank him if he didn’t turn off the water to the cell used in the breakout, according to the affidavit.
If the water had still been on, “the plan to escape would not have been successful and potentially flooded the cell, drawing attention to their actions,” according to the affidavit.
Williams’ attorney, Michael Kennedy, said the worker was turning off water to an overflowing toilet after being told to do so and that he is “fully convinced” of his client’s innocence.
Williams was just doing his job and was not acting out of fear when Massey said he would shank him, Kennedy said.
“Sterling went on and did his job,” Kennedy said. “He assessed the situation, saw the water had to be turned off, so he turned it off.”
Kennedy said his client is not familiar with any of the inmates, did not see them escape and he learned about the jailbreak “at the same time the rest of us did: Friday morning.”
He described his client as a “solid employee” of the jail for five years who has never been arrested and is being used as a “scapegoat” after the escape.
Two other people, Cortnie Harris, 32, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, were arrested on suspicion of assisting some of the inmates after they escaped, Louisiana State Police said in an update Wednesday.
Harris was allegedly in contact with one of the escaped inmates before the jailbreak and is also accused of transporting two of the escapees “to multiple locations in New Orleans,” the update said. Those inmates remain at large, officials said.
Baptiste was allegedly in contact via phone and social media with Corey Boyd, who has since been captured, the update said. Baptiste allegedly helped get Boyd food while he was hiding in a residence, officials said.
They have been booked on suspicion of being accessories after the fact, officials said.
5 recaptured, 5 at large
Five of the 10 escaped inmates have been recaptured and are being held at Louisiana State Penitentiary, a maximum-security facility.
The latest to be caught, Corey Boyd, 19, was arrested Tuesday, about five days after he and nine other men broke out of the Orleans Justice Center through a hole behind a metal toilet just after midnight Friday. The escapees face an array of charges, including aggravated assault with a firearm, false imprisonment with a weapon and murder.
The captured inmates will be held without bond, Murrill said in a social media post Wednesday.
After the escape, Crimestoppers of New Orleans received hundreds of tips from the community and officials encouraged residents to add more details to their reports.
Two suspects were caught because of tips coming in from the public, Crimestoppers told CNN.
The breakout has left New Orleans on high alert — with members of the district attorney’s staff fleeing for their safety — and local and state officials investigating how an escape could have happened. All five inmates were arrested in New Orleans.
Massey, the inmate who allegedly threatened the maintenance worker, is among the five still at large.
More than five years ago, Massey also escaped from a detention center in North Louisiana, authorities said.
“It didn’t surprise me, because (Massey) was known for that,” Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief James Mardis told CNN about learning that Massey had escaped once again.
In 2019, Massey and another inmate broke out of the Morehouse Parish Detention Center in Collinston, before being recaptured in Lancaster, Texas, Mardis told CNN Tuesday.
They cut through the wire of a chain link fence at the exercise yard of the facility and crawled under it in broad daylight back in August 2019, Mardis said. A vehicle with Texas tags was seen in the rural area and was believed to have picked up the men. Deputies and corrections officers were at the scene within minutes, but the men had gotten away, he said.
The men were taken into custody that evening in Texas, the sheriff’s office said at the time.
Mardis said he was told of Massey’s second escape on Monday, though the Louisiana State Police had called to ask about the inmate over the weekend, he said.
CNN’s Jason Morris and Ryan Young contributed to this report.
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