By: Pari Apostolakos | wdsu.com | August 7, 2026
A 31-year-old inmate at the Orleans Justice Center tried to escape Friday afternoon but was apprehended within 28 seconds, according to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office said Anthony Green was being brought back to the jail in shackles along with other inmates after a court hearing when he hid behind a garbage can and under a staircase. He then made a run for it as a gate opened to let in a car. Surveillance cameras spotted him, and corrections officers quickly detained him.
“It was more than anything, a crime of opportunity,” said New Orleans criminal defense attorney Stavros Panagoulopoulos.
“That was the shortest escape in the history of probably our jail,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
Court documents revealed Green was being held on three domestic battery charges. The sheriff’s office said no probable cause was found for those charges during his Friday court hearing, but Green remained in custody due to a years-old warrant from East Baton Rouge for being a felon and having a gun.
Goyeneche and the sheriff’s office said the fact that probable cause was not found for Green’s domestic battery charges does not automatically mean the charges will be dropped. The district attorney’s office can still choose to prosecute Green.
“Even if people are inclined to give the benefit of the doubt and allow for the possibility that an accusation is untrue, the moment an escape occurs, [you’ve] put yourself in the negative,” Panagoulopoulos said. “It looks like now you may be guilty of something.”
The sheriff’s office has been under increased scrutiny following a jailbreak last May when 10 inmates escaped through a hole behind a toilet, sparking a monthslong manhunt. Goyeneche said the jail currently houses more than 1,400 pretrial inmates.
“Every one of those 1,400-plus inmates want to get out,” Goyeneche said. “Ultimately, there was a mistake made by a deputy, and that can’t be tolerated. Because the next time, if there is a next time, the sheriff’s office may not be so lucky.”
Panagoulopoulos said Green’s escape attempt will create some difficult consequences in court.
“Any type of mercy he could have expected for his charges prior is eliminated,” Panagoulopoulos said. “At this point, all he did was hurt himself.”
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said Green will face charges for the escape attempt. Goyeneche said because the department is under new leadership after last year’s jailbreak, he has more faith in the current administration.