Orleans Parish voters booted Sheriff Susan Hutson from office Saturday, replacing her with Michelle Woodfork, a 30-year New Orleans police officer who rose to become interim superintendent. WWL-TV called the race for Woodfork about 9:20 p.m.

Woodfork, 55, led with 54% of the vote, with 2nd City Constable Edwin Shorty at 20% and Hutson holding 16% with early voting and 229 of 349 precincts reporting.

The vote came almost five months after a group of detainees escaped the jail Hutson runs, a historic breach of safety that doomed her reelection campaign.

Woodfork is the second Black woman, after Hutson, to be elected sheriff in Louisiana. She’ll take over a badly overcrowded and underfunded jail under the watch of a federal judge. The May 15 escape is under investigation by the state Attor

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