Gene Palmer. (Screenshot via CNN)
Gene Palmer, a prison guard at the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York, has been arrested in connection with the escape of convicted killers Richard Matt and David Sweat, who remain on the run after 19 days, state police announced.
Palmer is accused of bringing frozen meat, which was stuffed with tools, to the two killers after it had been smuggled into the prison by another prison employee, Joyce Mitchell, according to CNN.
The 57-year-old Palmer was charged Wednesday night with first-degree promoting prison contraband, a felony, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, also a felony, and one count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor. Mitchell was previously arrested.
Hundreds of police officers, led by the New York State Police and including FBI agents, have been searching the area around the upstate New York prison in the days since the inmates made their dramatic escape.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. He Also Is Accused of Allowing the Inmates Into a Catwalk Area Where They Made Their Escape
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tours the catwalk area that two prison inmates used to escape from Clinton Correctional Facility. (Getty)
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN that Palmer also escorted the two men into the catwalk area behind their cells to fix electrical breakers so they could use hot plates to cook food. The prisoners used the catwalks when they escaped on June 6.
Palmer, who lives in Dannemora, where the prison is located, will be arraigned Wednesday night at Plattsburgh Town Court, police said. The 27-year employee of the Department of Corrections was placed on paid leave while his possible role in the escape was investigated, police said. He was questioned by state police on June 20.
The meat Palmer delivered to the inmates in the prison’s honor block was loaded with saw blades. It was completely frozen, wrapped with cellophane in a Styrofoam package about 12 inches long, 5 inches wide and 2 inches high, according to the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.
In an escape that drew immediate comparisons to the movie Shawshank Redemption, Sweat and Matt tunneled their way out of the catwalk area, emerging from a manhole outside the prison’s walls.
Sweat was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for killing a sheriff’s deputy, while Matt has been convicted of killings twice, once in Mexico and in New York.
2. He Says He Had No Knowledge of the Escape Plan & Didn’t Know What Was Inside the Meat
Palmer’s mugshot. (New York State Police)
Palmer has previously denied having any knowledge of the prisoners escape plot. His attorney, Andrew Brockway, told the Plattsburgh Press-Republican Palmer “had no knowledge that they intended on doing this beforehand.”
Brockway told the newspaper his client realizes now how played puppeteer prison employees.
“He sees … how they were able to manipulate his co-workers, maybe himself and Joyce Mitchell,” Brockway said. “He knows it’s important not to become too close with (inmates).”
Brockway told CNN that his client’s mistake was trusting Mitchell, the other employee. He said Palmer asked Mitchell if there was anything wrong with the meat before he handed it off to the inmates, and she said no.
Palmer, who claims he didn’t know what was inside the package, did not put the meat through a metal detector, which is a violation of prison policy, CNN reports.
3. Palmer Was Given Artwork &Info on Inmates in Exchange for ‘Benefits’
In this handout from the New York State Police, progression images of escaped inmates David Sweat, left, and Richard Matt are seen. (Getty)
The tampering with physical evidence charges are related to the destruction of artwork given to Palmer by Richard Matt, CNN reports. Palmer was given paintings or drawings by Matt, and he is accused of destroying or hiding that artwork after the killer made his escape.
In a statement to state police investigators, Palmer said Matt gave him “elaborate paintings and information on the illegal acts that inmates were committing within the facility,” in exchange for “benefits,” including, “paint, paintbrushes, movement of inmates, hamburger meat, altering of electrical boxes in the catwalk areas.”
Read the full statement below:
Palmer said he also gave paint supplies to the two men, and helped them hide the paint during inspection. He told police, “I did not realize at the time, that the assistance provided to Matt or Sweat made their escape easier. The altering of the electrical boxes was to enhance their ability to cook in their cells.”
4. Mitchell’s Attorney Denies She Had Sex With Sweat in Her Prison Tailor Shop
(Facebook)
Another prison employee, Joyce Mitchell, 51, was charged with first-degree promoting prison contraband, a felony, and fourth-degree criminal facilitation, a misdemeanor, police said.
Mitchell, a married grandmother and the supervisor in the prison’s tailor shop, is rumored to have been in a sexual relationship with David Sweat, CNN reported. A former inmate told the news network Sweat may have had sex with Mitchell in the tailor shop. They openly flirted, Eric Jensen told CNN.
“It would be (like) when the cute guy at the high school asks the girl to prom and the look on her face every day when they would get together,” Jensen said. “They would laugh, giggle — conversations all day long.”
But Mitchell’s attorney denied that she ever had sex with Sweat, saying it wouldn’t have been possible because there was always a corrections officer in the tailor shop with them.
Mitchell allegedly smuggled tools concealed in the frozen hamburger meat into the prison, Fox News reports. Palmer then allegedly delivered the meat to the inmates.
She told her husband, who also works at the prison, that she planned to pick up the escapees after they got out of the prison. But she decided to back out, her husband told NBC News.
5. The Search for the Escaped Killers Has Narrowed After DNA Was Found at a Hunting Cabin
Richard Matt, left, and David Sweat. (New York Department of Corrections)
Search crews found evidence left behind by Sweat and Matt at a cabin about 30 miles west from the Clinton Correctional Facility, state police said.
The evidence, which included a jar of peanut butter, prison underwear and bloody clothing, was tied to the two men through DNA, the Plattsburgh Press-Republican reports.
The cabin in remote Owl’s Head, in Franklin County, New York, is owned by a group of New York corrections officers, the New York Daily News reports. . The officers are not suspected of any wrongdoing, as it appears to just be a coincidence that they own the hunting cabin.
