By Sara Cline
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Nine men accused of breaking out of a New Orleans city jail in May after slipping through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a barbed wire fence pleaded not guilty to escape charges on Wednesday.
Officials have repeatedly pointed to video surveillance of the brazen escape, one of the largest jailbreaks in recent U.S. history, and vowed to bring the inmates to justice. A 10th inmate, Derrick Groves, a convicted killer, is the lone fugitive still on the run.
“Everyone is entitled to due process. But there’s a video of these detainees running out of the jail in the middle of the night. They were not heading to court hearings,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Wednesday. “We will continue to hold everyone accountable for the escape.”
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The nine men appeared via Zoom from the Louisiana State Penitentiary for their arraignment Wednesday. Groves’ attorney was present for the hearing but did not enter a plea on his behalf, reported The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune.
All 10 men are charged with simple escape, which is tacked on top of previous criminal counts that initially landed them in jail, Murrill’s office confirmed. The men’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.
The escape charge carries a sentence of two to five years in prison.
Authorities say that the men broke out of the jail after yanking open a locked door to access a cell, where the water had been turned off, removing a toilet and squeezing through a hole in a wall. Video surveillance shows 10 men sprinting out of the jail and fleeing into the coverage of darkness.
The getaway went unnoticed for hours until a routine morning head count. When authorities located the point of the escape they found a message written on the cell wall above the hole, once covered by the toilet: “To Easy LoL”.
At least 16 people have been arrested and charged for helping in the escape or the aftermath. Many of them are family members of the escapees and face charges for providing transport, food, shelter and cash to the fugitives.