By Pete DeMola
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Reuters) - A corrections officer was due in court on Thursday as the second person charged with helping two murderers escape an upstate New York prison, accused of passing them tools hidden in frozen hamburger in exchange for artwork, court documents said.
Guard Gene Palmer, 57, who was suspended with pay from Clinton Correctional Facility, was freed after posting $25,000 cash bail early on Thursday, the Clinton County Sheriff's Department said.
He was expected to enter a plea to the charges later on Thursday.
Law enforcement officials searched the thick forests of the Adirondack Mountains for fugitives Richard Matt, who turned 49 on Thursday, and David Sweat, 35, in the 20th day of a manhunt. The men were assumed to be armed with weapons likely stolen from a cabin in Owls Head, New York, about 20 miles west of the prison in Dannemora, New York State Police said.
The men used smuggled hacksaw blades and a screwdriver bit to break through the steel walls in their neighboring cells, slipped through a steam pipe and fled through a manhole outside the walls of the maximum-security prison, about 20 miles from the Canadian border. They were discovered missing June 6, their beds stuffed with cloth decoys.
The tools allegedly were hidden in frozen meat by Joyce Mitchell, 51, who worked in the prison's tailor shop and is charged with aiding in the escape of the inmates, who were allowed to cook their own meals, said Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie.
Palmer also is accused of trying to burn paintings he received from Matt, who frequently painted portraits, and Sweat, according to court documents.
Palmer is charged with tampering with physical evidence, introducing dangerous contraband into prison, both felonies, and a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct for accepting the paintings in return for the contraband, the documents showed.
Palmer's lawyer, Andrew Brockway, told CNN that Palmer would plead not guilty and was cooperating with authorities. Brockway did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
More than a decade ago Palmer talked about life as a corrections officer inside the Dannemora prison in an interview with North Country Public Radio.
"With the money they pay you'll go bald, you'll have high blood pressure, you'll become an alcoholic, you'll divorce and then you'll kill yourself," he said, calling Dannemora as a "negative" environment.