NEW ORLEANS — A school teacher has been arrested for helping one of her former students escape custody. The juvenile was found over 300 miles from where he was being held, and his former teacher allegedly helped him get out of the state.
Dorothy White has been fighting for justice for her grandson Darrelle Scott for four years. White told WWL-TV, "The only thing that gives me a little sigh of relief is that she will be on an ankle monitor."
In 2019, Darrelle Scott was walking along this stretch of Morrison Road when Lynell Reynolds approached him. Lynell Reynolds ended up shooting Darrelle in the back. Darrelle is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.
18-year-old Reynolds escaped from a juvenile halfway house in Louisiana on September 13. He was captured in San Antonio, Texas Monday afternoon.
Police also arrested his former teacher, 31-year-old Angela Filardo. She's accused of helping him after he got out. Authorities tracked Reynolds through his phone, finding nearly 100 communications between the duo. Detectives report she drove him to Texas and dropped him off in Houston.
Filardo was booked on one count of accessory to simple escape.
"She's for Lynell. She is wrong. I hope she never ever, ever in life, gets to be around any children or ever teach again," White said,
New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams issued his warning last week about anybody caught aiding and abetting Reynolds. Williams said, "If they assist or aid this escapee in any way, they're committing a crime. And if they have help, they need to let this office know, let the authorities know when they were in contact with him, where he was headed next. Because anyone found to have assisted him, however slight, will be prosecuted."
White recalls seeing Filardo at Reynolds' 2019 court hearing, where she spoke up for him. She said, "We send our children off every day to a safe haven, I wouldn't want to send mine off to Ms. Angela."
On Tuesday, prosecutors pushed for Filardo's bond to be $500,000. Instead, it was set at $5,000 and she has to wear an ankle monitor.
White says that's far too lenient, saying, "You're going to get out, walk away like you did nothing, and that's the look she had on her face. I did nothing."
Filardo faces up to six months in prison if convicted. Lynell Reynolds was being held at Le Maison De Grace Youth Home, which is a non-secure facility in Lake Charles where Judge Bates-Anderson had placed him.
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