(NewsNation) — A former maintenance worker at the New Orleans jail where 10 inmates escaped May 16 has been formally charged with assisting the breakout as his attorney continues to accuse authorities of scapegoating Sterling Williams.
The 33-year-old Williams shut off the water that day after someone purposely clogged a toilet at the problem-plagued Orleans Parish Justice Center, his attorney, Michael Kennedy, told “Banfield” on Wednesday. He said Williams denies doing it so that inmates could remove the commode to slip through a wall, as authorities allege.
“He was the jail plumber,” Kennedy said. “He entered the tier. There was a toilet that had been stuffed full of jail clothing, towels, etc., forcibly overflowed. In order to clear it, he was forced to turn off the water. That’s his job.
“We do expect that evidence is going to prove that as soon as discovery is tendered.”
This week, the Louisiana attorney general’s office charged Williams with 10 counts of “principal to simple escape” and one count of malfeasance in office. He has been jailed since May 19 — one of several people accused of assisting the escaped inmates. Williams remains held on $1.1 million bond.
Kennedy offered an explanation in response to reports that one of the inmates had threatened to “shank” Williams if he didn’t turn off the water. Williams told investigators the inmate had threatened to stab him, but not as a reprisal if he didn’t cooperate, he said.
“That was jailhouse banter,” the attorney said. “It was misconstrued as being the reason he turned off the water.”
Of the 10 inmates who escaped, nine have been recaptured. Convicted murderer Derrick Groves is still at large.