Last week, ten inmates managed to escape from a New Orleans jail by clogging a toilet, prompting a water shutoff that enabled them to flee through a hole behind the fixture, according to the lawyer representing a maintenance worker accused of assisting them.
The attorney, Michael Kennedy, stated that the maintenance worker, Sterling Williams, was unaware of the escape plan and did not permit the prisoners to cut the pipe behind the toilet to fashion an exit route.
The defense attorney laid out a very different narrative than that presented by authorities a day earlier, when Williams, 33, was arrested.
Officials reported that one of the inmates instructed Williams to turn off the toilet’s water supply, which led to one of the most significant jailbreaks in recent U.S. history.
Five of the men remained at large Wednesday.
Williams just a ‘tool,’ lawyer says
Kennedy told the AP that after a deputy called Williams to fix a toilet, he found it overflowing.
“This was clearly all part of an orchestrated plan,” Kennedy said. Williams “was nothing more than the tool they used to turn off the water, which they knew would have to happen after clogging the toilet.”
According to an arrest affidavit that made no mention of a clogged toilet, Williams was “initially very evasive and untruthful” during an interview but ultimately told investigators that an inmate had threatened to “shank” him if he did not turn off the water. Williams could have reported the threat and the escape plan, authorities have said. They asserted that because Williams turned the water off, the inmates were “able to successfully make good” on their escape, the affidavit said.
Kennedy said Williams did not report the escape because he was “not aware” it was happening.
The lawyer also addressed the authorities’ statements that his client was threatened into helping with the escape.
“He was not aware that there was going to be an escape,” Kennedy said. “He was not conspiring with them. He had no knowledge that he was being used.”
A message was left seeking comment from the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office about Kennedy’s remarks. The sheriff said Tuesday that she believes the escape was an inside job.
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and Attorney General Liz Murrill toured the jail Wednesday morning. Williams told reporters after the tour that “certainly more than one person” was responsible for the escape but declined to share further details.
Shanking comment was not a threat, lawyer says
Inmate Antoine Massey, who approached Sterling Williams and said he would “shank” him as he was doing his maintenance work, was “just talking to talk” and not intimidating the maintenance worker, Kennedy said.
“Everyone seems to have leaped on that, saying he was acting out of fear. No,” Kennedy said. “Yes, someone said they would shank him. They didn’t say it in a particularly threatening manner. They said it more as an aside.”
Kennedy said the cell with the clogged toilet was for disabled inmates and should never have been in use. “No one should have been in this cell to begin with,” he said. “This cell should have been locked down.”
“It would seem obvious to me that filling up the toilet, clogging the toilet, was a portion of the escapees’ plan,” Kennedy said. “They would know that whoever the maintenance person was would have to turn off the water … because it was overflowing.”
‘A scapegoat’
Kennedy said he was only able to meet with Williams for around 30 minutes via Zoom. He did not ask Williams whether he had finished unclogging the toilet, whether he turned the water back on, or how long he was inside the cell.
Williams did not know the name of the deputy who told him to fix the clogged toilet, Kennedy said.
Williams is worried about his safety and his future, his lawyer said. He is being held in a different facility in a separate parish.
“The most important thing I’ve learned is that these charges are ridiculous and the sheriff’s office is trying to use him as a scapegoat to minimize their own embarrassment,” Kennedy said. “He did nothing more than the job they pay him to do, and now they’re attempting to sacrifice him for it.”
Williams is charged with 10 counts of principal to simple escape and one count of malfeasance in office.
Additional arrests made
Also Wednesday, authorities arrested two people accused of helping some of the escapees. Cortnie Harris, 32, of New Orleans, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, of Slidell, are each charged with one felony count of being an accessory after the fact, according to a Louisiana State Police press release.
They were booked into the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center.
Online jail records did not indicate whether either woman had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.
An initial investigation showed that Harris was in touch by phone with an escapee who’s still on the run and transported two escapees who still haven’t been caught to multiple locations in New Orleans, the release said.
Investigators said Baptiste had been in contact by phone and social media with Corey Boyd, who has since been recaptured, and helped him get food while he was hiding.
