Corrections Officer Arrested in Clinton Killers' Escape

New York State Police have arrested Clinton Correctional Facility Correction Officer Gene Palmer of Dannemora, NY.

Palmer is charged with Promoting Prison Contraband 1st Degree, a Class D Felony, two counts of tampering with Physical Evidence, Class E Felonies, and one count of Official Misconduct, a Class A Misdemeanor.

Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN that Palmer gave Richard Matt frozen meat that had tools hidden in it—given to him by Joyce Mitchell, the other prison worker who has been arrested and charged with helping Matt and David Sweat escape. He didn’t put it through a metal detector, against prison policy.

Wylie also told CNN that Palmer escorted Matt and Sweat behind their cells onto a catwalk, to fix electrical breakers so the prisoners could use hot plates to cook food. He loaned them tools to do the work and then took them back.

Prisoners are allowed to cook in their cells. Police have said the men used the catwalks during their June 6 escape.

“He understands that he made a mistake with the whole meat fiasco,” Palmer’s attorney, Andrew Brockway told Anderson Cooper.

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Palmer also allegedly received drawings or paintings from one of the prisoners. According to news reports, he burned at least one.

He has been on paid leave since June 19 as investigators probed his part in the killers’ escape.

State police said Palmer pleaded not guilty yesterday and was sent to the Clinton County Jail on $25,000 bail.

Meanwhile, the massive manhunt continues. DNA belonging to one of the escapees was found in a cabin not far from the prison.

Mitchell, who was supposed to meet them with a car once they had climbed out of the steampipe system, had checked herself into the hospital with an anxiety attack. Police have said they do not think Sweat and Matt had a “Plan B.”