Maintenance worker arrested in New Orleans jail escape

Search continues for escaped inmates

How police caught some of the New Orleans escaped inmates

02:14

A maintenance worker has been arrested and accused of helping 10 inmates escape from a New Orleans jail late last week, the Louisiana attorney general’s office confirmed to CBS News. The worker was arrested Monday night.

The inmates broke out of the jail on Friday, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, which runs the facility. Three of the inmates were captured later that day. A fourth was captured Monday, officials said.

It all started in the early predawn hours of Friday morning. Several inmates were caught on surveillance video forcing open a cell door at about 12:22 a.m. CDT, according to the sheriff’s office. Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson told reporters the inmates then breached a wall behind the cell’s toilet.

At around 1 a.m., the inmates were seen on video fleeing the building through a nearby loading dock, according to the sheriff’s office. At about 1:19 a.m., the group climbed over a fence, using blankets to cover barbed wire, and fled across Interstate 10 into a neighborhood.

The escape went unnoticed by the sheriff’s office until approximately 8:30 a.m. Friday, according to the office. At the time of the escape, no sheriff’s deputy was assigned to the area where the inmates initiated the jailbreak, and a civilian monitor stationed in the area had stepped away for food.

The sheriff’s office had said three workers were suspended without pay as the office conducts an internal investigation. It wasn’t immediately clear if the maintenance worker was one of the three workers.

Hutson had told reporters the inmates may have received help from at least one person inside the sheriff’s office. She also said the office has spent years asking local officials for more than $5 million in funds to upgrade faulty locks on cell doors.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

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Alex Sundby is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. In addition to editing content, Alex also covers breaking news, writing about crime and severe weather as well as everything from multistate lottery jackpots to the July Fourth hot dog eating contest.

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