2nd prison employee arrested after escape

2nd prison employee arrested after escape

BELLMONT, N.Y.

A correction officer at a New York maximum-security prison has become the second worker there arrested in connection with the escapes of two inmates.

State police say Gene Palmer faces charges including promoting prison contraband and tampering with physical evidence. He was to be arraigned Wednesday night in Plattsburgh.

Inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt were reported missing from the Clinton County Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6.

Searchers on Wednesday were contending with steep slopes, thick woods, biting bugs and the possibility that the pair is armed.

Police said they remain almost 100 percent certain that Sweat and Matt spent time recently at a hunting camp about 20 miles west of Clinton County Correctional Facility near Owls Head. A hunter said he saw a figure bolting from the cabin Saturday morning. But after days of intense searching with dogs and helicopters, police had no substantiated sightings of Sweat and Matt.

State Police Maj. Charles Guess told reporters Wednesday that authorities don’t have confirmed evidence that a shotgun was stolen from the hunting cabin near Owls Head, but they’ve always assumed the escapees were armed.

Carter: NATO must boost cyberdefense

BRUSSELS

NATO must improve its ability to defend itself against cyberattacks before it tries to build its offensive cyberwarfare capabilities, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told alliance leaders Wednesday amid rising tensions with Russia, which has proven its willingness to launch computer-based attacks against other nations.

Carter’s message runs counter to some experts and leaders who believe NATO should begin to develop cyberweapons, in order to deter opponents in the 21st century.

According to senior defense officials, Carter also wants NATO’s cybercenter of excellence, which he visited in Estonia, to be more than a think tank. They said he wants the center to take on a more active role in helping allies counter cyberthreats.

Report: Nuclear help being offered to Iran

VIENNA

Western powers are offering Tehran high-tech reactors under a proposed nuclear agreement, a confidential document says, but a defiant speech by Iran’s supreme leader less than a week before a negotiating deadline casts doubt on whether he’s willing to make the necessary concessions to seal a deal.

The talks, which resumed Wednesday in Vienna on restraining any Iranian efforts to make atomic arms, appeared to be behind schedule judging by the draft document obtained by The Associated Press.

Technical cooperation is the least-controversial issue at the talks, and the number of brackets suggest the sides have a ways to go not only on that topic but also more contentious disputes before the Tuesday deadline for a deal.

3 deputies guilty in jail beating

LOS ANGELES

Three Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs were convicted Wednesday in federal court in the beating of a bloody, handcuffed jail visitor and an attempt to cover it up.

Sgt. Eric Gonzalez and deputies Sussie Ayala and Fernando Luviano were found guilty of deprivation of civil rights and falsification of records in the 2011 beating of Gabriel Carrillo. Gonzalez and Ayala were also convicted of conspiracy to violate constitutional rights. The three face at least six years in prison when sentenced Nov. 2.

Associated Press