Two Logan County Sheriff's Office jailers have been suspended for five days without pay after a convict escaped from the county jail in Paris last month, officials said.
The jailers, whose names have not been released, also were placed on six months probation, according to David Spicer, Logan County chief deputy and jail administrator.
The jailers received the suspension and probation for not following jail policy in the Feb. 24 escape, Spicer said.
The escapee, Gary Topham of Magazine (pictured above), was not reported missing until the next day, officials said. On March 2, Topham was captured by Del City, Okla., according to the Logan County Sheriff’s Office.
Topham escaped through a hole in the fence that another inmate helped him cut, Spicer said.
The same inmate, identified as Allen Parsons (pictured below), used newspapers to make it appear as though Topham were still in his bed, the chief deputy said.
Also, when other inmates called out asking for Topham after he'd already escaped, Parsons would yell back as if he were Topham, Spicer said.
The inmate faces a criminal charge in helping Topham escape, officials said.
Topham was in the jail awaiting transfer to an Arkansas Department of Correction prison on a drug conviction. He previously escaped from the Logan County Jail last year.
