A Louisiana sheriff was indicted Wednesday over her office’s role in a notorious jailbreak that sparked outrage last year. The brazen escape saw 10 inmates flee from a New Orleans jail, prompting a massive manhunt involving hundreds of officers from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson faces a 30-count grand jury indictment, charging her with malfeasance, obstruction of justice and falsifying public records. Although Hutson is not accused of helping the inmates break out of jail — through a hole behind a toilet — a state investigation found her poor management of the jail led to their escape. All of the inmates were eventually recaptured after a monthslong search.
“While Sheriff Hutson did not personally open the doors of the jail for the escapees, her refusal to comply with basic legal requirements and to take even minimal precautions in the discharge of her duties directly contributed to and enabled the escape,” Murrill said in a statement.
Huston’s office did not immediately respond to phone calls, text messages and emails seeking comment. Court records did not list a personal attorney for Huston, who lost her reelection campaign and is set to leave office on Monday.
The sheriff told CBS News in an exclusive interview last August that understaffing and “major design flaws” at the jail played a significant part in the inmates’ escape. At the time, she said those flaws at the Orleans Parish Justice Center “make it unsafe for those who are housed here and make it unsafe for those who work here.”
In a farewell address Tuesday, Hutson said her office faced numerous challenges and said the jailbreak “tested us to the limit.” She added her office “responded with professionalism, urgency and resilience, and we came out stronger because of it.”
Court records show bond for Hutson was set at $300,000 and that she was ordered to turn in her passport and not leave the state. Bianka Brown, the chief financial officer of the sheriff’s office, was also indicted on 20 similar charges. She did not immediately respond to phone calls and text messages sent to numbers associated with her.
Both Hutson and Brown turned themselves into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center and have been released on bond, CBS affiliate WWL reported.
The escapees left behind graffiti that read “To Easy LoL” after crawling through a hole behind a jail toilet and scaling a barbed wire fence. The jail did not realize the inmates were missing for more than seven hours.
State officials and some city leaders accused Hutson of poor management and criticized her for not alerting police and other authorities in a timely manner. Hutson initially blamed political opponents for being behind the jailbreak without providing any evidence to support her claim. She also said faulty door locks enabled the escape and added she had been seeking funding to improve the jail’s ailing infrastructure.
The Orleans Parish jail system had been plagued by violence, corruption and dysfunction for decades and was placed under federal oversight in 2013. But problems persisted despite tens of millions of dollars in investment and the opening of a new jail facility in 2015.
Federally appointed monitors warned of the jail’s inadequate staffing, lax supervision and a skyrocketing number of “internal escapes” in the two years leading up to the jailbreak.
