Correction officer put on leave after New York prison escape
DANNEMORA, N.Y. -- A correction officer has been placed on administrative leave as part of the investigation into the escape of two convicted killers from an upstate New York prison.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said in a brief statement that the officer was put on leave Friday night. The statement said no additional information was available.
Inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt used power tools to cut their way out of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6. Hundreds of police officers have been looking for them for the last two weeks.
State police say they're prepared to keep searching for the "long haul." They say Sweat and Matt could be anywhere but they're focusing their ground search in the heavily wooded region around the prison.
"We're no strangers to lengthy months and yearlong investigations, particularly with the federal outreach that's been so supportive of us," New York State Police Maj. Charles Guess told CBS affiliate WCAX-TV in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
On Thursday, the U.S. Marshals Service added Matt and Sweat to its list of "15 Most Wanted" fugitives, hoping maximum exposure will reduce places they can hide.
"It is effective and it helps keep it in the public eye," U.S. Marshal David McNulty said.
"We will not stop our search and we will not stop chasing leads until we have put Richard Matt and David Sweat back in prison," said Guess.
A prison tailor shop instructor, Joyce Mitchell, has pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped the convicts escape. Law enforcement sources told CBS News Mitchell and the two men were involved in a plot to kill her husband, Lyle. Her lawyer has denied the charge.
Matt and Sweat are among more than 220 state prison escapees nationwide who are listed as on the loose, The Associated Press found in a coast-to-coast survey.