Grand Jury Indicts New Orleans Sheriff Over Jailbreak

A New Orleans grand jury indicted Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson on Wednesday over a jailbreak in which 10 inmates escaped from the parish jail under her oversight, charging her with malfeasance, obstruction of justice and falsifying public records in a 30-count indictment.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced the charges following a state investigation that pinpointed Hutson's management failures as enabling the May escape. The inmates crawled through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed-wire fence and left graffiti reading "To Easy LoL." Jail staff did not notice their absence for more than seven hours.

"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," Murrill said in a statement.

Hutson's office did not respond to requests for comment. Court records show her bond was set at $300,000, and she must surrender her passport and remain in the state. Hutson, who lost her reelection bid, is scheduled to leave office on Monday. In a farewell address Tuesday, she...