A former Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office maintenance man admitted Thursday that when he shut off water supply to a jail cell at the Orleans Justice Center in May 2025, it enabled 10 detained people to remove a toilet and escape through the hole it left.
An attorney for Sterling Williams, 34, denied that he intentionally aided the escapees in last year’s daring jailbreak, even as Williams pleaded guilty to a single count of malfeasance in office.
Attorney Michael Kennedy said the inmates clogged the toilet and used Williams as a “tool.” The former OPSO janitor, however, shut off the plumbing without a proper work order authorizing him to do so, Kennedy said…