Second New York prison worker charged in breakout
A second prison employee was arrested Wednesday for the escape of two convicted murderers from an Upstate New York prison.
Corrections officers walk along a road after leaving a wooded area while searching for two prison escapees from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, in Owls Head, N.Y.
Mike Groll/AP
CADYVILLE, N.Y.
A second聽New York聽prison聽employee was arrested on Wednesday for the escape of two convicted murderers who have eluded a massive police manhunt for almost three weeks, police said.
Clinton Correctional Facility officer聽Gene Palmer, 57, allegedly took frozen hamburger meat embedded with smuggled tools to the inmates,聽Richard Matt聽and聽David Sweat, CNN quoted聽Clinton County聽District Attorney聽Andrew Wylie聽as saying.
Wylie also said Palmer escorted the men into the catwalk area behind their cells to fix electrical breakers so the inmates could use hot plates to cook food. Authorities have said Matt and Sweat used the catwalks during their June 6 escape.
Matt, 48, and Sweat, 35, cut through the steel walls of their adjoining cells, slipped through a steam pipe and emerged from a manhole outside the聽prison's fortress-like walls in聽Dannemora,聽New York, according to authorities.
They used tools brought into the聽prison聽by Joyce Mitchell, 51, a training supervisor in the聽prison聽tailor shop, who is charged with aiding their escape, Wylie has said.
New York State Police聽said Palmer has been charged with promoting聽prisoncontraband, destroying evidence and official misconduct. Palmer is set to be arraigned in Plattsburgh Town Court late on Wednesday, the police said in a statement.
Police said the escapees may have at least one gun from a cache of weapons in a cabin where they hid about 20 miles (30 km) from the maximum security聽prison.
Major聽Charles Guess聽of the聽New York State Police聽told a news conference that Sweat and Matt were believed to have been last seen entering woods near the cabin in Owls Head,聽New York, on Saturday.
A bloody sock and other items found at the cabin, which is reportedly owned by corrections officers, were tested for DNA, and Guess said police had "100 percent assurance they were in that area."
More than 1,000 law enforcement officers scoured 75 square miles (194 square km) in rugged Franklin County, east of the聽prison.
Authorities are focused on the聽Adirondack Mountains, the largest wilderness area east of the聽Mississippi River, state聽Department of Environmental Conservation聽Captain聽John Streiff聽said.
Mitchell, the training supervisor, supplied hacksaw blades and a screwdriver bit to the men, whose good behavior landed them on the聽prison's honor block.
(Additional reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Susan Heavey and Eric Beech)