ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A corrections officer at the St. Louis County Justice Center was charged Tuesday and accused of helping her son and another boy get away after they escaped a juvenile detention center in May.
Michelle Royal, a 39-year-old Florissant resident, was charged with two counts of hindering prosecution in connection with the May 29 escape.
Police said the two boys, 15 and 17 at the time of their escape, got out of the St. Louis County Juvenile Detention Center in Clayton through a broken window.
According to St. Louis County police, video showed someone "providing them with transportation and firearms." When police arrested one of the boys days later in an attempted carjacking, he told police Royal was the one that helped them.
Police got a search warrant for Royal's cellphone activity, which revealed she transferred money to one of the boys and was in the same area as a cellphone used by one of the boys in the days after the escape.
Police said the phone records showed she was in contact with one of the boys for about seven days after the escape until the boy was arrested in connection with a carjacking.
According to the press release from police, Royal worked at the St. Louis County Justice Center, which is across the street from the detention center where the boys escaped.
Royal was taken into custody Tuesday and is being held on a $30,000, cash-only bond. Online court records do not have a date for her next court appearance.
