Denise Prell, 38, a fired civilian worker at a notorious New York maximum-security prison, has been charged with having sex with an inmate
A female employee at the New York prison where another worker helped two convicted killers escape has been charged with having sex with an inmate.
State police say the charges against former Clinton Correctional Facility employee Denise Prell include promoting prison contraband and sexual abuse.
Investigators say the 38-year-old was fired from her civilian job at the maximum-security prison in Dannemora after a guard caught her engaged in inappropriate behavior with an inmate.
The guard’s report triggered a multi-agency criminal investigation that was carried out by state police, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Office of Special Investigations, the New York State Inspector General’s Office and the Clinton County District Attorney’s Office.
On Wednesday, Prell was arrested on charges of first-degree promoting prison contraband and third-degree sexual abuse, and 23 counts of official misconduct.
Prell lost her job at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora after a guard allegedly caught her engaged in an inappropriate behavior with a convict
She’s being held in the county jail on $10,000 cash bail. Her next court date is October 18.
Public records indicate that Prell lives in Schuyler Falls in Clinton County, New York, with her husband, 37-year-old Matthew Prell.
The Dannemora prison made national headlines when in June 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped with the aid of civilian tailor shop supervisor Joyce Mitchell, who was having an extramarital affair with one of the fugitives.
Mitchell was sentenced to two-to-seven years in prison after prosecutors said she smuggled tools in frozen hamburger meat, which the inmates used to break out of the correctional facility.
The murderers’ original plan was to kill Joyce Mitchell’s husband, Lyle, and make her their getaway driver. But on the eve of the escape, the female prison worker had a change of heart and stayed behind.
Following a three-week manhunt, Mitchell’s lover Matt was shot dead and Sweat was captured near the Canadian border.
Famous predecessor: Prell’s arrest comes two years after Joyce Mitchell, a tailor shop supervisor at the prison, was arrested for helping two inmates escape
Convicted murderers David Sweat, left, and Mitchel’s prison lover Richard Matt, right, broke out of the correctional facility in June 2015 using smuggled tools. Three weeks later, Matt was shot dead and Sweat was captured
Last month, a state board denied parole to Joyce Mitchell. The next time she could be up for parole is 2019 and the latest she could be released from prison is 2022.
The high-profile prison break is the subject of the upcoming Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora, directed by Ben Stiller and starring Academy Award winners Patricia Arquette as Mitchell and Benicio Del Toro as Richard Matt.