Well, there are several charges, Anderson that we are hearing about. This according to his attorney whom I spoke to just a short while ago. He said that Gene Palmer has been charged with the following, promoting dangerous contraband, destroying evidence, official misconduct, in terms of destroying evidence that could be, reference to some of the paintings that Richard Matt has made. You've heard about those in the past. Apparently he gave, or may have given some paintings and/or drawings to Gene Palmer as well. And then shortly after Gene Palmer found out about what had happened with the escape, he allegedly destroyed some of those paintings and/or drawings. So that could be part of the reason why you see that destroying evidence charge. 

 

I also as I said, I spoke to his attorney a little while ago. He says that his client is very upset. He says that his client had no knowledge at all of what was inside that frozen chunk of hamburger meat that Joyce Mitchell, you already know about her, that she had convinced Gene Palmer to pass that on to Richard Matt. 

 

So now, we have two prison employees, Joyce Mitchell whom you already know was charged in her connection with the escape. Now you have Gene Palmer who has also been charged. But once again his attorney says he did not know what was inside that slab of meat. His attorney also says Anderson, he had absolutely no knowledge of any escape plan, Anderson. 

 

We should point out, Jason, though the attorney is saying he didn't know obviously that there was something hidden in the meat, or perhaps not, apparently that's the claim that he didn't know. He did and the attorney has admitted he neglected to put the hamburger meat through a metal detector that would have discovered this.

 

That's correct. And once again, this was a clear violation of prison policy. That is something that was acknowledged by his attorney early on. But he just wanted to emphasize that even though that he had made that mistake, and he just wanted to emphasize this was also a man who had relied on Richard Matt and David Sweat over a period of time as a source, if you will. He said often times he would lean on both of them for information about other inmates there in the prison who could have caused trouble. So he said there was some sort of a relationship there. He was hesitant to use the word trust, but he said, he didn't, it didn't seem to be anything unusual about wanting to pass something along. But it was a violation of prison policy, not checking that meat, not passing it through a metal detector. That's part of the reason why you are seeing some of the charges we are seeing here (tonight).