Scheme to free Detainee results in Escape Charges

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office has charged two Seneca residents, including one already in custody, with escape charges after a scheme to try to free the detained person from jail. Deputies arrested 26-year-old Joshua Dewayne Burrell on Feb. 13 on two warrants as well as a fugitive from justice warrant for violating his probation in Georgia. In addition, a deputy picked up his fiancée, 25-year-old Brooke Danyelle McCall. On Monday, a deputy was contacted by a detention officer concerning a phone call from a female who identified herself as a probation officer from Georgia. She told the detention officer that the retainer on Burrell was being lifted and that he could be released. The detention officer advised the caller that proper paperwork from Georgia needed to be faxed over in order to release him. The detention officer contacted Rabun County, GA detention who advised that the retainer was not being lifted on Burrell. The case was turned over to the Criminal Investigations Division. Burrell stands charged with conspiring with McCall “to contact the Detention Center under the pretense of being a probation officer to have his retainer lifted and to be released from custody unlawfully.” McCall faces charges of “attempting to aid or assist a prisoner, Burrell, by any means in his endeavor to escape custody.” At no time was Burrell ever released from custody and he is still in custody at the Oconee County Detention Center awaiting extradition to Georgia for the violation of probation charges. McCall was released on a $15,000 personal recognizance bond.