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N.O. teacher accused of driving escaped teen to Texas facing more charges

Angela Filardo, 32, surrendered to authorities in Lake Charles Tuesday after a warrant was issued for her arrest for being an accessory to escape.
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NEW ORLEANS — A woman accused in New Orleans of driving a juvenile escapee from Louisiana to Texas has now been hit with the identical criminal charge in Calcasieu Parish.

Angela Filardo, 32, surrendered to authorities in Lake Charles Tuesday after a warrant was issued for her arrest for being an accessory to escape. She was released from Calcasieu Parish jail Tuesday afternoon after posting a cash bond of $100,000, records show.

Filardo was scheduled to stand trial Monday in New Orleans on the same charge, but the trial was postponed. In that case, she is accused of driving Lynell Reynolds, 18, from New Orleans to Texas, where the escapee was eventually caught in San Antonio last October after a manhunt.

Filardo is identified in the court documents as one of Reynolds’ teachers from fifth to eighth grade. That final year in school is about the time that Reynolds, at age 13, had racked up more than a dozen felony arrests, including the attempted murder and armed robbery of Darrelle Scott, 21.

Scott, now 25 and confined to a wheelchair, said he mostly stayed indoors out of fear during the three weeks his attacker was unaccounted for.

During Reynold’s nearly three weeks on the lam, he apparently traveled from the juvenile halfway house he escaped from in Lake Charles, La. to New Orleans, then Slidell, before getting dropped off in Texas.

The new charge against Filardo places her in Lake Charles, where authorities say Reynolds and Filardo passed through on the way to Texas.

Following the escape on Sept. 13, state authorities documented 97 “communications” between Filardo and Reynolds, eventually matching the pings from the phone to the route used by Filardo as she allegedly drove the teenager to Texas, dropping him off in Houston.

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