KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A second Knox County corrections employee has been disciplined in connection with the March 31 escape of an inmate who snuck away in a laundry cart.
Ernest Muniz, 65, a shipping and receiving officer with the Knox County Sheriff's Office, received a 10-day, unpaid suspension from Sheriff Tom Spangler.
Muniz, who has more than 15 years with the department, was working the loading dock the morning inmate Samuel Fox, 49, climbed into a cart of towels and was taken away by an unsuspecting Aramark delivery truck from the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility off Maloneyville Road.
According to the sheriff's reprimand dated April 22, Muniz failed to do his job.
"You did not properly screen the outside vendor (Aramark), you failed to inspect the laundry that was brought in, you failed to escort the outside vendor into the secure area and make sure he was properly supervised for the duration of his time in the secure area, and then failed to inspect the laundry cart before it exited the loading dock," Spangler's letter to Muniz states.
"This gross negligence of your duties allowed an inmate to escape."
Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kimberly Glenn said there are "appropriate protocols" in place that should have prevented what happened.
"However, the two employees that violated the proper procedures were both reprimanded and suspended," Glenn said in an email to 10News.
Fox had been working in the kitchen that morning. He was being held on charges of theft, aggravated burglary, evading arrest and criminal impersonation.
It was several hours before anyone noticed he was missing. A review of facility security footage later showed what had happened.
Authorities caught Fox late that same night. He remains an inmate at the Detention Facility.
Knox County Corrections Officer Korey Holbert, 29, was suspended five days without pay in the incident.