The sheriff and chief financial officer overseeing a New Orleans jail where 10 inmates escaped in May 2025, setting off a multistate manhunt, were indicted on Wednesday, according to the Louisiana attorney general.
Sheriff Susan Hutson of Orleans Parish, whose term is ending in the coming days, faces 30 counts of misconduct in office and Bianka Brown, the jail’s chief financial officer, faces 20 more.
“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,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement.
A special grand jury in Orleans District Court heard evidence and examined witnesses presented by prosecutors from the Louisiana Department of Justice and handed up the charges, according to the attorney general’s office.
The charges stem from the brazen jailbreak. On May 16, 2025, 10 inmates removed a toilet from a wall in the Orleans Parish Justice Center and escaped through a hole. One of the men left a misspelled message, taunting his jailers: “To easy lol.” At 1 a.m., a security camera captured them jumping from a loading dock and running away.
Hours went by before the escape was detected. One inmate was captured that day after a chase through the city’s French Quarter, not even two miles from the jail. The second and third were also tracked down on the day of the escape. Two others were found in the following days in New Orleans. One by one, the escapees were caught. The last of them, Derrick Groves, a now-convicted murderer, was apprehended 145 days later, after a standoff with police in Atlanta.
The escape and its aftermath prompted a debate in New Orleans, including among officials overseeing the jail, about the facility, with accounts of faulty locks, a camera system plagued by problems and insufficient staffing. A jail maintenance worker was accused of turning off the water supply to the toilet so that inmates could pull it from the wall.
“We are operating with outdated surveillance, aging infrastructure, blind spots in supervision and critical staffing shortages,” Sheriff Hutson said at a City Council hearing not long after the escape. “These vulnerabilities have been raised repeatedly in our funding requests, and now, the consequences are undeniable.”
At the time of the escape, about 1,400 inmates were housed at the jail, which the sheriff said was more than the guards could handle.
The jail had been under a federal consent decree since 2013 — an agreement under which officials must work to meet federal standards. A federal monitor had also complained that the supervision at the jail was inadequate.
Sheriff Hutson’s 30 counts include 14 counts of malfeasance in office. Other charges include filing or maintaining false public records and obstruction of justice. Ms. Brown’s 20 counts are similar. The indictment was light on details but said the misconduct took place from May 2, 2022, to April 8, 2026.
It was not immediately clear whether Ms. Brown or Sheriff Hutson had lawyers. The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
Bond was set at $300,000 for Sheriff Hutson and $200,000 for Ms. Brown, according to the attorney general’s office. Both women were required to surrender their passports and are prohibited from leaving the state.
A new sheriff is due to be sworn in on Monday, according to a local television station.
New Orleans media reported in August 2025 that the jail had been granted $15 million for improvements. On Feb. 25 the sheriff’s office shared a “proud moment” on social media, when the jail had received a three-year accreditation from the American Correctional Association. The accreditation means that the jail meets the association’s standards and is considered the “gold standard in corrections,” the sheriff’s office said.
Rylee Kirk reports on breaking news, trending topics and major developing stories for The Times.
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