LUTZ, Fla. (AP) — A state corrections officer has resigned after a prisoner escaped while on work detail.
Officer Henry Blackwelder was supervising a five-person work crew Monday in Pasco County when authorities say 27-year-old Jason Adams took a bathroom break in the woods in Lutz and never returned. Adams was found a day later in Hillsborough County.
Pasco County Sheriff’s officials were investigating the incident. The Department of Corrections said Blackwelder resigned Wednesday after he was confronted about the differences in his account of Adams’ escape and evidence gathered by the sheriff’s office.
DOC Secretary Mike Crews said in a statement that protocol was not followed. But officials declined to give further details about the conflicting accounts because the investigation is ongoing.
