A special grand jury indicted a Louisiana sheriff on Wednesday, whose office came under investigation after 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans jail last May.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson faces 30 counts of misconduct in office and Bianka Brown, the jail’s chief financial officer, faces 20 counts, according to the bill of indictment.
Attorney General Liz Murrill released a statement following news of the indictment, saying that she made a “commitment to the people of New Orleans and the people of our state that those responsible for the Orleans Parish Prison break would be held accountable.”
“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,” she added.
The brazen jailbreak through a hole behind a toilet set off a monthslong search before all the escapees were eventually captured.
The 30-count indictment handed up by a New Orleans grand jury charges Hutson with malfeasance, obstruction of justice and falsifying public records.
According to the bill of indictment, Hutson, in capacity as sheriff of Orleans Parish, committed the offence of malfeasance in office between the dates of May 2, 2022, and April 8, 2026.
The legal docs said Hutson committed malfeasance “by intentionally refusing or failing to perform any duty lawfully required of her, as such officer or employee, or by intentionally performing any such duty in an unlawful manner, or by knowingly permitting any other public officer or public employee, under her authority, to intentionally refuse or fail to perform any duty lawfully required of her, or to perform any such duty in an unlawful manner, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.”
“OPSO is aware of the recent legal developments involving Sheriff Hutson and CFO Brown. Due to the ongoing legal proceedings, OPSO will not comment on the specifics of the case,” the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) said in a statement to Global News.
OPSO added that the agency “remains focused on ensuring continuity across all operations.”
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Court records show the bond for Hutson has been set at US$300,000 and that she was ordered to turn in her passport and not leave the state, The Associated Press reports.
Hutson, who lost a re-election campaign, said in a farewell address Tuesday that her office faced numerous challenges and said the jailbreak “tested us to the limit.” She added that her office “responded with professionalism, urgency and resilience, and we came out stronger because of it.”
Hutson’s charges stem from the May 16 jailbreak, where inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish jail, a correctional facility where 1,400 people are being held, while the lone guard watching them went to get food.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said at least one of the steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures “appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool.”
On the cell wall, they drew an arrow pointing at the gap they slipped through — above it was a graffiti message: “To Easy LoL.”
After exiting through the hole behind the toilet, the inmates scaled a barbed wire fence, quickly shed their uniforms, changed into regular clothes and fled into the dark, police said.
The inmates’ absence was not reported until a routine morning headcount more than seven hours later. Many of those inmates, ranging in age from 19 to 42, have been charged with or convicted of violent offences such as murder.
A maintenance worker at the jail was arrested in May 2025 after authorities said he helped facilitate the escape.
Sterling Williams is accused of cutting off the water so the inmates could pull the toilet from the wall, Murrill said in a press release.
Williams’ lawyer claimed that the inmates clogged a toilet to shut the water off so that they could escape through a hole behind it. Williams did not know about the plan and did not allow the inmates to cut a pipe behind the toilet to create an opening for their escape, lawyer Michael Kennedy told The Associated Press.
Authorities have said an inmate instructed Williams to turn off the water to a toilet. Kennedy said 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.”
Nine escapees were recaptured within six weeks of breaking out. Most of them were found in Louisiana. The only inmate who remained on the run was captured in Atlanta five months after the manhunt, the U.S. Marshals Service said in October.
The men accused of breaking out of the city jail pleaded not guilty to escape charges last July, appearing via video call from the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
“Everyone is entitled to due process. But there’s a video of these detainees running out of the jail in the middle of the night. They were not heading to court hearings,” Murrill said. “We will continue to hold everyone accountable for the escape.”
All 10 men are charged with simple escape, which is tacked on top of previous criminal counts that initially landed them in jail, according to Murrill’s office. The escape charge carries a sentence of two to five years in prison.
— With files from The Associated Press
@Anonymous As much as I’d also like to point at DEI, that isn’t the case here. In the U.S, sheriffs are elected officials, not appointed. Nobody to blame but the voters.
I love DEI, endless entertainment hahahahaha
Keep it going libs!