Latest news with #OrleansParishSheriff
The Independent
5 days ago
- General
- The Independent
New Orleans jail, site of a brazen inmate escape, faces flooding and plumbing failures
The New Orleans jail that gained national attention for a brazen escape by 10 inmates earlier this month is experiencing 'significant flooding' from 'ongoing and severe plumbing failures,' the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office says. Embattled Sheriff Susan Hutson and her deputies have portrayed the bold jailbreak — one of the largest in recent U.S. history — as the result of an ailing facility in dire need of repairs and improvements such as replacing faulty locks. State and local officials have generally disputed Hutson's characterization of the $150 million state-of-the-art facility built in 2015 and blamed the sheriff's leadership since taking office in 2022. The jail system has been under the oversight of a federal judge and the U.S. Justice Department since 2013. 'These recurring plumbing issues highlight a much deeper infrastructure crisis at OJC, rooted in years of deferred maintenance, chronic overcrowding, and a lack of meaningful investment,' Hutson said in statement Wednesday. 'This is not just a facilities problem. It's a public safety issue, a staffing issue, and most of all, a human dignity issue.' The sheriff's office renewed calls this week for 'immediate and sustained infrastructure investment,' saying jail flooding and other issues were both 'foreseeable and preventable.' It said it requires at least $13 million in urgent fixes and that requests for help have been made repeatedly to city officials. But New Orleans City Council members questioned management of the jail last week during a tense meeting and argued the sheriff's office requires greater transparency and accountability. The city's chief administrative officer also noted the department has received a larger proportionate increase in funding since 2019 than any other public safety agency in the city. The longstanding debate over how to improve the city's jail system persists as two inmates remain at large. The group of fugitives escaped in the early hours of May 16 by yanking open a jail door, removing a toilet and crawling through a hole in the wall where steel bars had been cut away, then hopping over barbed-wire fencing using blankets. Authorities say the inmates were able to escape because a maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, turned off the water in the cell after an inmate allegedly threatened to shank him. Williams' lawyer Michael Kennedy has said the plumber was not threatened and had only turned off the water after being told to do so by a deputy. Williams was unaware that the inmates intentionally clogged the toilet as part of an orchestrated plan to escape, Kennedy said. Authorities have made no mention of the cell having a clogged toilet. Over the weekend — in a seemingly unrelated incident — the jail received 'emergency repairs' as water pooled and the facility remains forced to rely on an 'external water supply" as of Wednesday, the sheriff's office said. Flooding in the jail has been exacerbated by inmates' 'misuse the plumbing system' such as flushing 'inappropriate items' down the toilet, the sheriff's office added. While the Orleans Justice Center is only a decade old, dysfunction has long plagued the city's jail system. ___
Associated Press
5 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
New Orleans jail, site of a brazen inmate escape, faces flooding and plumbing failures
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans jail that gained national attention for a brazen escape by 10 inmates earlier this month is experiencing 'significant flooding' from 'ongoing and severe plumbing failures,' the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office says. Embattled Sheriff Susan Hutson and her deputies have portrayed the bold jailbreak — one of the largest in recent U.S. history — as the result of an ailing facility in dire need of repairs and improvements such as replacing faulty locks . State and local officials have generally disputed Hutson's characterization of the $150 million state-of-the-art facility built in 2015 and blamed the sheriff's leadership since taking office in 2022. The jail system has been under the oversight of a federal judge and the U.S. Justice Department since 2013. 'These recurring plumbing issues highlight a much deeper infrastructure crisis at OJC, rooted in years of deferred maintenance, chronic overcrowding, and a lack of meaningful investment,' Hutson said in statement Wednesday. 'This is not just a facilities problem. It's a public safety issue, a staffing issue, and most of all, a human dignity issue.' The sheriff's office renewed calls this week for 'immediate and sustained infrastructure investment,' saying jail flooding and other issues were both 'foreseeable and preventable.' It said it requires at least $13 million in urgent fixes and that requests for help have been made repeatedly to city officials. But New Orleans City Council members questioned management of the jail last week during a tense meeting and argued the sheriff's office requires greater transparency and accountability. The city's chief administrative officer also noted the department has received a larger proportionate increase in funding since 2019 than any other public safety agency in the city. The longstanding debate over how to improve the city's jail system persists as two inmates remain at large . The group of fugitives escaped in the early hours of May 16 by yanking open a jail door, removing a toilet and crawling through a hole in the wall where steel bars had been cut away, then hopping over barbed-wire fencing using blankets. Authorities say the inmates were able to escape because a maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, turned off the water in the cell after an inmate allegedly threatened to shank him . Williams' lawyer Michael Kennedy has said the plumber was not threatened and had only turned off the water after being told to do so by a deputy. Williams was unaware that the inmates intentionally clogged the toilet as part of an orchestrated plan to escape, Kennedy said. Authorities have made no mention of the cell having a clogged toilet. Over the weekend — in a seemingly unrelated incident — the jail received 'emergency repairs' as water pooled and the facility remains forced to rely on an 'external water supply' as of Wednesday, the sheriff's office said. Flooding in the jail has been exacerbated by inmates' 'misuse the plumbing system' such as flushing 'inappropriate items' down the toilet, the sheriff's office added. While the Orleans Justice Center is only a decade old, dysfunction has long plagued the city's jail system. ___ Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
2 escapees from the New Orleans jailbreak remain at large. One has a lot of experience being on the run
More than a week after 10 prisoners conducted a daring escape out a bathroom wall in a New Orleans jail, two inmates remain on the run, prompting an intensified search across state lines. (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office/AP via CNN Newsource) More than a week after 10 prisoners conducted a daring escape out a bathroom wall in a New Orleans jail, two inmates remain on the run, prompting an intensified search across state lines. Authorities on Monday captured three escapees: Lenton Vanburen Jr., Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald. Tate and Donald were the first of the escaped inmates to be found outside Louisiana. They were arrested in Texas after what the Huntsville Police Department described as a high-speed chase involving multiple law enforcement agencies. Now with eight escapees recaptured, the manhunt continues for the two remaining inmates –– Antoine Massey and Derrick Groves –– both of whom should be considered armed and dangerous, authorities say. Here's what we know about them. An experienced fugitive Antoine Massey is no stranger to breakouts. The 33-year-old has a history of escapes dating back to 2007, when he broke out of a New Orleans juvenile detention center after being arrested for armed robbery and aggravated assault, according to A broken lock at the center allowed Massey, then 15, and five other juveniles to access metal shackles, which they used to shatter a window and escape, reported. The teen stayed on the run for more than two weeks before authorities found him on an interstate in east New Orleans. Two years later, Massey faced a charge of attempted simple escape in Orleans Parish, according to online court records. CNN reached out to the parish sheriff's office for more details about the circumstances around the charge. At 27, Massey and another inmate broke out of a detention center in northern Louisiana in broad daylight by cutting and slipping under a chain-link fence in the exercise yard, Chief James Mardis of the Morehouse Parish Sheriff's Office told CNN last week. The two men were believed to have been picked up by a vehicle with Texas tags that was seen in the area. Massey was caught in Texas later that day. Massey has also twice cut off electronic ankle monitors, according to Matt Dennis, an employee with the company that operates the monitors who spoke to CNN affiliate WDSU. Court records from late 2023 alleged Massey had 'tampered and/or removed the court-ordered GPS monitor.' Dennis told CNN affiliate WVUE he was 'astonished' that someone with Massey's history of escape was being held on the first floor of the New Orleans jail. 'There isn't an ounce of this man's history that doesn't say 'escape',' Dennis said. Chief Mardis, who shared details of the inmate's 2019 escape, said it was no shock to learn of the current breakout: 'It didn't surprise me, because (Massey) was known for that.' It's still unclear how big of a role Massey may have played in planning this month's jailbreak, which the Orleans Parish sheriff has described as a 'coordinated effort.' The 10 inmates escaped through a hole in the wall behind a metal toilet in a handicapped cell. The escapees appear to have scrawled 'To Easy LoL' on the cell wall. The jailbreak has been blamed on a combination of faulty locks, stolen blankets and possible help from inside the jail. As of Tuesday morning, it is believed that at least 13 people helped the 10 escaped inmates – either before or after the May 16 jailbreak. The growing number of arrests provides new insight into just how elaborate and far-reaching the planned jailbreak may have been. Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker who turned off the water to the toilet, is charged with aiding the escape. Massey purportedly threatened to shank Williams if he did not turn off the water, according to an affidavit, but Williams' attorney later told the Associated Press that one of the jail's deputies asked Williams to fix the toilet because it was overflowing. 'Yes, someone said they would shank him … (but) they didn't say it in a particularly threatening manner. They said it more as an aside,' Michael Kennedy, the attorney for Williams, told the AP. Kennedy argues Williams was only doing his job and that jail officials are 'trying to use him as a scapegoat to minimize their own embarrassment' over the breakout. Convicted killer in 2018 Mardi Gras murders The other escaped inmate who's still at large is 27-year-old Derrick Groves, who was being held at the New Orleans jail after being convicted near the end of last year in the killing of two people on Mardi Gras day in 2018. Groves was found to be one of the gunmen who opened fire with AK-47-style assault rifles 'on what should have been a joyous Mardi Gras family gathering,' the district attorney's office said. Groves was found guilty of two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder, charges that carry a life sentence, according to the district attorney. Groves' aunt, Jasmine Groves, told CNN affiliate WDSU that she wants her nephew to turn himself in and that she hopes deadly force will not be used against him. She said she's seen police cars and helicopters around her and other family members' homes since the breakout. Other manhunts that made the headlines As Massey and Groves near two weeks on the run, here's a list of other high-profile escapes that made headlines: Alcatraz: On June 11, 1962, three prisoners – Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin, all in their 30s – shimmied with a homemade raft through hidden holes in their cell walls, climbed through a ventilation duct onto the roof and bolted from the Alcatraz Island fortress into the freezing, choppy waters of San Francisco Bay. While Morris and the Anglin brothers were never found, fans of outlaw drama – and some of the prisoners' own family members – are convinced they actually made it to shore and lived their lives hidden from justice and the public eye. On June 11, 1962, three prisoners – Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin, all in their 30s – shimmied with a homemade raft through hidden holes in their cell walls, climbed through a ventilation duct onto the roof and bolted from the Alcatraz Island fortress into the freezing, choppy waters of San Francisco Bay. While Morris and the Anglin brothers were never found, fans of outlaw drama – and some of the prisoners' own family members – are convinced they actually made it to shore and lived their lives hidden from justice and the public eye. 'El Chapo': Despite the reportedly cushy conditions at Mexico's Puente Grande prison, drug cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Loera in 2001 escaped from the prison in a laundry cart, with 12 years left in his sentence. Guzman remained on the run until 2014, when he was captured at a hotel in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan. A year later, however, he had broken out of a maximum-security prison again, authorities announced. This time, he used a mile-long tunnel for escape. It took nearly six months for investigators to find him again at a hideaway in the coastal city of Los Mochis in January 2016. He was later convicted for running an industrial-scale drug smuggling operation and is now serving his sentence at a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado. Despite the reportedly cushy conditions at Mexico's Puente Grande prison, drug cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Loera in 2001 escaped from the prison in a laundry cart, with 12 years left in his sentence. Guzman remained on the run until 2014, when he was captured at a hotel in the Pacific beach town of Mazatlan. A year later, however, he had broken out of a maximum-security prison again, authorities announced. This time, he used a mile-long tunnel for escape. It took nearly six months for investigators to find him again at a hideaway in the coastal city of Los Mochis in January 2016. He was later convicted for running an industrial-scale drug smuggling operation and is now serving his sentence at a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado. A 'special relationship: Corrections official Vicky White and prisoner Casey White fled a detention facility in Lauderdale County, Alabama, on April 29, 2022. They were finally captured by authorities on Monday, May 9, in Evansville, Indiana. In those 11 days, the guard and the prisoner, who had formed a 'special relationship' at the Lauderdale detention facility, travelled more than 200 miles through at least four states, with tens of thousands of dollars in cash to pay for clothes, wigs, hotel rooms and several vehicles. Officers took Casey White into custody, while Vicky White died from what investigators believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Casey White was booked back into the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer – the same prison where he had been held at the start of 2022. Corrections official Vicky White and prisoner Casey White fled a detention facility in Lauderdale County, Alabama, on April 29, 2022. They were finally captured by authorities on Monday, May 9, in Evansville, Indiana. In those 11 days, the guard and the prisoner, who had formed a 'special relationship' at the Lauderdale detention facility, travelled more than 200 miles through at least four states, with tens of thousands of dollars in cash to pay for clothes, wigs, hotel rooms and several vehicles. Officers took Casey White into custody, while Vicky White died from what investigators believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Casey White was booked back into the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer – the same prison where he had been held at the start of 2022. Long time on the lam: According to Guinness World Records, the longest recorded escape by a recaptured prisoner was that of Leonard T. Fristoe, 77, who escaped from the Nevada State Prison, Carson City, Nevada, USA on December 15, 1923. Leonard was turned in by his son on November 15, 1969, in Compton, California. By then Leonard had lived nearly 46 years in freedom under the name of Claude R. Willis. His crime was killing two sheriff's deputies in 1920, the organization on all things record-breaking said. According to Guinness World Records, the longest recorded escape by a recaptured prisoner was that of Leonard T. Fristoe, 77, who escaped from the Nevada State Prison, Carson City, Nevada, USA on December 15, 1923. Leonard was turned in by his son on November 15, 1969, in Compton, California. By then Leonard had lived nearly 46 years in freedom under the name of Claude R. Willis. His crime was killing two sheriff's deputies in 1920, the organization on all things record-breaking said. Ted Bundy: Serial killer Bundy was arrested for the final time on February 15, 1978. He had been previously arrested on murder charges in Colorado but escaped from custody, before being captured in Aspen a few days later. Months later, Bundy escaped again, prompting a nationwide manhunt. While a fugitive in Florida, he killed two college students and a 12-year-old girl. Six weeks after escaping, Bundy was apprehended for a third and final time in Pensacola in a stolen car. He was convicted on three counts of murder, sentenced to death in the electric chair and executed on January 24, 1989. Written by Karina Tsui, Matt Rehbein, Chris Lau, CNN
BreakingNews.ie
7 days ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Three more of 10 escapees from New Orleans jail captured, leaving two on run
Three more of the 10 inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail earlier this month have been re-arrested in two different states after more than a week on the run, authorities have said. One of the men was arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by local police and two others were arrested in Walker County, Texas, by officials there, Louisiana State Police posted on X. Advertisement Two more inmates are still on the run, state police said. No other details were immediately released about the latest arrests on Monday. Dkenan Dennis, from top left, Gary C Price, Robert Moody, Kendell Myles, Corey E Boyd. From bottom left, Lenton Vanburen Jr, Jermaine Donald, Antonine T Massey, Derrick D Groves, and Leo Tate Sr (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AP) Authorities have been scouring the New Orleans area for the men after they escaped in a May 16 jailbreak. The men yanked open a faulty cell door inside a jail, squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed-wire fence and fled under cover of darkness. The inmates' absence was not discovered until a morning headcount, hours after their bid for freedom. Graffiti left on the wall included the message 'To Easy LoL', with an arrow pointing to the gap. Advertisement City and state officials have pointed to multiple security lapses in the jail. Many of the men were originally in the New Orleans jail awaiting sentences or trials for alleged violent crimes (Brett Duke/The Advocate via AP) Louisiana authorities named the latest inmates who were recaptured as Lenton Vanburen, Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald. Jail escapees Dkenan Dennis, Corey Boyd, Gary C Price, Kendell Myles and Robert Moody were previously taken into custody by authorities. Many of the men were originally in the New Orleans jail awaiting sentences or trials for alleged violent crimes including murder. After the escape, a jail maintenance worker was arrested and accused of turning off the water to the toilet, an act authorities said helped the men get out. The worker said he had been threatened by one of the inmates if he refused to do so. Advertisement In addition, four other people have been arrested for allegedly helping the inmates once they were on the loose.
CBS News
27-05-2025
- CBS News
Sixth escaped New Orleans jail inmate captured
A sixth inmate who escaped from a New Orleans jail earlier this month has been captured, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Monday. Four of the escapees remain at large. Inmate Lenton Vanburen was detained in Baton Rouge, Murrill said on social media. No details on his capture were immediately provided. Vanburen was originally serving time for a parole violation, possession of a firearm by a felon and illegal carrying of a weapon, Murrill said. Vanburen will now face additional charges related to the escape, Murrill said. The 10 inmates broke out of the jail on May 16, and three were captured in the first 24 hours after their escape. Surveillance video showd several inmates forcing open a cell door at about 12:22 a.m. CDT on May 16 and breaching a wall behind the cell's toilet. At around 1 a.m., video showed the inmates fleeing the building through a nearby loading dock, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. The escape went unnoticed by the sheriff's office until approximately 8:30 a.m. on Friday. At the time of the escape, no sheriff's deputy was assigned to the area where the inmates initiated the jailbreak. At least nine people have been arrested in connection with the escape of the 10 inmates, including a maintenance worker at the jail, who was accused of shutting off water to a cell that the inmates used in the escape by removing a toilet from the wall.
