Overview
- Susan Hutson was indicted by a special grand jury on Wednesday on 30 felony counts, and CFO Bianka Brown was charged with 20 counts tied to the Orleans Justice Center escape.
- Following Thursday’s status hearing, both surrendered passports, were told not to leave Louisiana, and are due for arraignment on May 15.
- An arrest warrant says the escape was not unforeseeable, citing one deputy monitoring multiple housing pods, managers rarely on site after 4 p.m. or on weekends, and falsified staffing and security-check records.
- The May 16, 2025 breakout began when inmates pulled a toilet from a wall and crawled through a hole; the jail missed their absence for more than seven hours, and all ten were recaptured by October after a multi-state search.
- Attorney General Liz Murrill says her office will keep bringing cases and is working with Sheriff‑elect Michelle Woodfork on security and financial controls at a jail long under federal oversight for understaffing and lax supervision.