NEW ORLEANS − Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams stood at the windows of his office looking toward the nearby jail, where the brazen May 16 jailbreak has rattled his office like never before.
Five inmates were still on the lam, including one escapee whose convictions on second-degree murder charges had led two of his prosecutors to flee the state. He had to request added security for his office. And he knew anxious residents wanted the men apprehended – and quickly.
But Williams was also focused on another problem: Unraveling who may have aided an escape that he said appeared to be an “inside job.” Already, one jail maintenance worker has been arrested.
As he spoke to USA TODAY on May 21 in a paneled office with a leather sofa and political memorabilia, an aide whispered in his ear. He quickly headed for the exit, passing a detective who had worked the case of one escaped inmate. She handed him a miniature religious figure for protection.
Williams climbed into the back of a waiting Lincoln SUV, riding the short distance to the sprawling Orleans Parish Prison, the jail run by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and the catalyst for a massive manhunt that has put this city on edge.
He was there to meet a New Orleans police crime lab unit that was gathering evidence.
New Orleans jail escape: Maps and videos show how it happened
DA demands sheriff preserve evidence
Earlier that morning, Williams said he asked the New Orleans Police whether the Sheriff’s Office had requested crime lab staff collect evidence – including fingerprints and DNA – from where the inmates had escaped. He was told no formal request had been made.
“I am deeply concerned that there was not an immediate request by the sheriff to our local crime lab to get in there and examine, document, preserve and collect all of the forensic evidence that was available there,” he said.
His office also asked the sheriff to preserve records such as emails and text messages to and from jail staff and contractors as well as surveillance camera footage, according to a copy of the request.
A spokesperson for Sheriff Susan Hutson’s office did not immediately respond to a message from USA TODAY seeking comment.
But Huston, who has suspended her reelection campaign in the wake of the jailbreak, said in a statement on May 20 that she took “full accountability for this breach that occurred under my leadership. We’ve taken immediate action, including suspensions, an arrest, and full cooperation with the Attorney General’s investigation.”
Already, three people have been charged with helping them: the maintenance worker who allegedly shut off a water pipe that facilitated the escape, and two women accused of helping the escapees with transportation or food afterward.
An arrest affidavit for the maintenance worker said one of the inmates threatened to stab him with a “shank” − a homemade knife.
Officials have said the men escaped by ripping out a toilet and climbing through a hole in the wall. Then they slipped onto a loading dock, shed their uniforms, scaled a wall and sprinted across Interstate 10, disappearing into the night. But not before leaving behind a mocking message on the wall that read: “To Easy LoL.”
On May 21, Michael Kennedy, a lawyer for maintenance worker Sterling Williams, told USA TODAY that his client argues he didn’t know the men were planning to escape.
Rather, he said his client told him that he responded to a request by a deputy, whose name he didn’t remember, to unclog a toilet. That required him to shut off the water. The threat to “shank” him was just “prison vernacular,” muttered without a directive to help them escape, Kennedy said.
“He learned about the escape when he got to work Friday morning,” Kennedy said.
DA worries for his staff
As the Orleans Parish district attorney works to untangle how the inmates pulled off the escape, and the Louisiana attorney general and other agencies are taking on their own reviews, an air of anxiety hangs over the city here as authorities hunt for the five inmates still at large.
It also worries Williams.
The highest profile escapee is Derrick Groves, 27, who was convicted of two charges of second-degree murder and two charges of attempted second-degree murder in October in connection with a shooting during Mardi Gras in 2018, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office. Groves has been awaiting sentencing on a manslaughter charge since October, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
Williams and two colleagues who left the state tried the second-degree murder case against Groves. Williams would not say if his office had gotten any credible threats. But the potential dangers have led the two attorneys to flee for their safety.
“They’re young. They’ve got families,” he said. “They don’t deserve to be in a situation.”
His office reached out to the victims and witnesses in the cases of the escapee and found “some of whom wanted to be relocated.” New Orleans, he said, is too small to go unnoticed.
He worries the dangers following the escape will chill people’s willingness to testify and serve on juries in other cases.
For now, his work is cut out for him. After a news conference outside the jail, Williams climbed into his SUV and headed off, with the fallout from the now-notorious jailbreak still yet to crest.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Orleans jailbreak: DA blasts search delays, raises safety worries
The post Orleans Parish DA blasts inmate search delays as prosecutors face safety worries appeared first on USA TODAY.
