Vicki White, assistant director of corrections in Lauderdale County in northwestern Alabama, is wanted on charges of allowing or facilitating the escape in the first place, Sheriff Rick Singleton said Monday.
She was last seen leaving the Lauderdale County Detention Center on Friday morning with prisoner Casey White, 38, handcuffed and chained to her patrol car, the sheriff said. The two are not connected.
Vicki White said she is taking Casey White to court for a mental health assessment and will then go for medical treatment because she is not feeling well. Authorities later revealed that no hearing or assessment was scheduled for Casey White that day, and Vicki White never arrived at the hospital. Her patrol car was found abandoned Friday morning in a mall parking lot, less than a mile from the detention center.
The situation shocked Vicki White’s colleagues. The day she disappeared was to be her last day on the job after nearly two decades in the department, Singleton said. She applied for retirement last week, sold her home about a month ago and had considered moving to the beach, he added.
“All her colleagues are ruined. We’ve never had a situation like this with Vicki White. She was a model employee,” Singleton told CNN’s Ryan Young on Monday. Earlier, Singleton said the correction officer had a “spotless file” and was an “exemplary officer.”
“If she did it willingly and all indications are that she did it … I guess we are trying to keep the last drop of hope that maybe for some reason she was threatened and did it under duress, but absolutely you “I will feel betrayed,” Singleton said.
Vicki White has been living with her mother for the past five weeks after selling her home, but she never mentioned her retirement or Casey White, the mother, Pat Davis, told CNN’s WAAY affiliate. “I’ve never heard of him, I’ve never seen his picture, nothing. I didn’t know anything about him, “Davis told the paper.
Pat Davis said he did not believe the situation and wanted her daughter to go home.
“We do not know whether she was taken by force or participated voluntarily. But we just want it back, that’s all we want, “Pat Davis told WAAY.
Sheriff: “I would be surprised if they are still in Alabama”
The video shows Vicki White’s patrol car stopped – about eight minutes after she left prison – at an intersection about two blocks from the mall’s parking lot, where she will be found abandoned, Singleton said.
This shows that the car was taken directly to the parking lot and the driver never tried to go to the courthouse, the sheriff said.
But the video does not show what happened after the car arrived in the parking lot.
Singleton told CNN he believed the couple had switched to a vehicle that was parked in the mall parking lot or may have been taken by someone.
“We looked for staff, of course, throughout the mall, hoping to identify a second vehicle they boarded when they left the area. But we have not been able to obtain any evidence that would help us in this part of the investigation, “he said.
“I would be surprised if they are still in Alabama,” the sheriff said. He noted that officials at the Mexican and Canadian borders had been notified of the search.
Vicky White will have money from the recent sale of her home, but documents for her pension fund have not yet been processed, Singleton said.
The U.S. Marshals Office is offering a reward of up to $ 10,000 for information leading to the whereabouts of the missing prisoner and officer.
Casey White is 6 feet 9 and although he may have changed his appearance after leaving prison, his height will still make him stand out, US Marshal Marty Keeley said on Monday.
The escaped prisoner is “extremely dangerous”
Casey White is an “extremely dangerous man,” Singleton said.
He is serving 75 years in prison for a series of crimes in 2015, including home burglary, car theft and police harassment, according to the marshals’ office.
He was transferred from a state prison to Lauderdale County Detention Center on February 25 to attend court hearings on two death charges he faces in connection with the 2015 knife death of Connie Ridgeway, 58. , the Marshals Service said.
He pleaded guilty to the crime in 2020 and then pleaded not guilty, according to Lauderdale County Attorney Chris Connelly.
“We assume he’s armed because she was armed,” Singleton told Casey White. The sheriff warned people not to approach the prisoner if they saw him, and to call the police instead.
In 2020, while Casey White was being held at the Lauderdale County Detention Center, authorities learned he planned to escape from prison and take a hostage, Singleton said.
“We shook it and found a knuckle in his possession – the knuckle is a prison knife. And we took it out. We immediately sent it back to the repair department,” Singleton said Monday.
The prison already had a policy of requiring two sworn deputies to accompany prisoners at all times, including during transportation to the courthouse – but “we emphasized this policy with him,” Singleton said.
Vicki White broke politics by leaving prison alone with Casey White, but because she was the second commander in the facility, other officials were not repulsed, Singleton said. “As head of transport management, she simply informed the reservation officer that she would take him to court and leave him, which was a gross violation of policy. But I’m sure because it was her boss, the reservation officer didn’t question him, “he said.
As part of her work, Vicki White “has often been in the cell blocks, she has been in contact with all the prisoners at one time or another,” Singleton said. “But as far as a romantic relationship or something like that is concerned, we have no evidence or proof that this was the case, although it is possible,” he added.
CNN’s Ryan Young, Jason Hannah, Elizabeth Wolfe, Lane Mackie, Nadia Romero and Maria Cartaya contributed to this report.
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