Alabama prison official goes missing after escorting prisoner to courtroom
From the Associated Press
April 30, 2022, 4:49 p.m.
• 3 minutes of reading
Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Email this article
FLORENCE, Alabama – An Alabama prison official has disappeared after escorting a prisoner to the courtroom.
Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post on Saturday that Correctional Assistant Director Vicki White had disappeared while escorting a prisoner on death row charges. The prisoner is also unknown.
On Saturday morning, Sheriff Rick Singleton confirmed that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the FBI and U.S. marshals are helping with the investigation.
White, 56, who has been in the ward for 16 years, left the detention center with inmate Casey White on Friday morning, and no one has been seen since. The couple is not related. The vehicle they were traveling in when they left the detention center was found in a nearby mall parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office.
White, 38, has been arrested on charges of murder in the death of Connie Ridgeway in 2015. He pleaded guilty to murder in 2020 while in state prison for other crimes, WHNT-TV reported.
At a news conference on Friday, Singleton said Vicki White, armed with 9mm, left the detention center with the inmate around 9:41 a.m. and headed to the court building to assess Casey’s mental health. She was alone with the prisoner, which the sheriff said was in direct violation of the department’s policy.
“Our policy is for every prisoner with such accusations to have two sworn deputies to escort him. And it didn’t happen, “Singleton said.
Singleton also said there was no scheduled assessment of the prisoner’s mental health at the courthouse.
White also told colleagues that he had an appointment with a doctor, which was confirmed, but the cabinet said the deputy never showed up.
Officials said no one understood that the two had disappeared by 3.30pm on Friday. Deputies tried to contact Vicki White, but her phone repeatedly went to voicemail.
Singleton said his department was “aggressively investigating” the incident and would investigate previous interactions between the two to “see if anything else happened.”
Singleton said his department was “shocked” and that it was possible that the correctional officer had helped him escape. Singleton told the media that Vicki White had submitted her retirement documents the day before she disappeared.
Despite her involvement, the sheriff acknowledged that she could be in danger.
Add Comment