A maintenance worker at the New Orleans jail where nearly a dozen prisoners escaped last week has been arrested and charged with facilitating their breakout, ABC News reported.
Ten inmates escaped from Orleans Parish Justice Center around 1 a.m. last Friday, which wasn't discovered until about 8:30 a.m. that morning. Three were arrested within 24 hours of escaping, while another escapee was arrested on Monday.
Sterling Williams, 33, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with malfeasance in office and 10 counts of principal to simple escape, one for each escaped inmate.
According to an affidavit obtained by NBC News, Williams told authorities that he shut off water to a toilet in the cell where the prisoners escaped, helping them break out after they removed the toilet from the wall, climbed through a gap that it had been covering, exited the building through a loading dock door, and scaled the barbed-wire fences using blankets for protection.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement, "Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed, allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape."
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told ABC News on Tuesday, "Ten violent offenders don't make their way into a pod made for two and make good their escape through concrete, rebar and barbed wire, without there being some sort of inside assistance."
When asked if officials had identified any motive for the jail employee's alleged assistance, Williams said, "Don't know," adding, "greed, avarice, friendship — the motives that cause men to do bad things."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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