EXCLUSIVE: How 'rocker' prison guard charged with sneaking blades to escaped 'Shawshank' inmates in frozen hamburgers still cares for ailing wife who insisted they split - so he could have a life with girlfriend

• Gene Palmer was released from jail early today after paying for $25,000 bail with his credit card
• He will be arraigned Monday and charged with promoting dangerous prison contraband, destroying evidence and official misconduct
• But just about everybody around Dannemora, NY where murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out, is rooting for the 'affable' 57-year-old
• Palmer lives with his girlfriend but is married and takes care of his wife Laurie and pays her health insurance premiums
• Now that could be all in danger - because he will likely lose his job at the prison where he has worked for 27 years 
• Palmer, who sings in local rock band Just Us, claims he had no idea that the meat - given to him by Joyce Mitchell - contained contraband 

By Martin Gould In Plattsburgh, New York, For Dailymail.com

Published: 16:19 EST, 25 June 2015 | Updated: 08:37 EST, 26 June 2015

Gene Palmer, the rock-guitar-playing guard accused of helping two psycho killers escape from a maximum security prison still visits his sick wife every day - even though he has lived with his girlfriend for nearly a decade.

And just about everybody around Dannemora, New York - where murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out - is rooting for the affable 57-year-old despite the massive cost of the search for the two men.

'Gene is one hell of a guy,' a relative of his wife Laurie Palmer told Daily Mail Online. 'I cannot speak highly enough of him.'

Gene and Laurie split more than 10 years ago after her multiple sclerosis worsened, according to several relatives. 'She didn't want to burden him,' said one.

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Off duty: Prison guard Gene Palmer with his girlfriend Mary Lamar on a trip to the beach at Old Orchard in Saco, Maine last year. He is charged with promoting dangerous prison contraband and destroying evidence

His wife: Laurie Palmer, who has multiple sclerosis, is visited every Gene, even though he lives with his girlfriend. He refused to get a divorce and continues to pay Laurie's health insurance premiums

But Gene refused to divorce her and gave her the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Plattsburgh where they lived. He continues to pay her health insurance premiums too.

Now that could be all in danger if, as likely, he loses his job at the Clinton Correctional Facility, where he has worked for 27 years. He is currently on paid administrative leave.

Palmer is charged with 'introducing' needle-nosed pliers and a flat-head screwdriver to Sweat, who is 35, and Matt, who marked his 49th birthday on the run on Thursday. Palmer is also charged with official misconduct for accepting paintings that accomplished artist Matt had given him, and two counts of tampering with evidence - namely destroying those paintings after the June 6 breakout.

His lawyer, Andrew Brockway pleaded for him to be given bail so that he could continue to look after his sick wife.

He faces up to seven years in jail - the same term that prison tailor-shop supervisor Joyce Mitchell also faces.

But while Mitchell is universally despised by locals around Dannemora for her alleged role in Matt and Sweat's escape, Palmer is admired for the way he has continued to care for his wife.

Palmer moved in with girlfriend Mary Lamar, 52, in her tiny 800 square foot home in Cadyville, New York, after the split with Laurie. But he still insists on visiting his wife, Lamar's sister-in-law Sandy O'Neill told Daily Mail Online.

Under arrest: Gene Palmer is led from Plattsburgh Town Court by a New York State Police officer Wednesday

Prison guard Palmer (left) with his band Just Us. He is the vocalist and lead guitarist for the local group

Second prison worker charged in New York jailbreak

'He goes every day to visit her,' said O'Neill. 'You speak to any correction officer, they have nothing but total respect for him.

'You have to realize you have the worst of the worst in that prison, and you have to get along with them. You can't be butting heads all the time or you would get nowhere.

Joyce Mitchell, the prison guard who allegedly gave co-worker Gene Palmer the slab of meat

'Gene is the consummate professional, and he knows he has to get information out of the prisoners - and you can't do that unless you show them some respect.'

O'Neill described Palmer, who is the vocalist and lead guitarist for a local band called Just Us, as 'quiet and affable'. The description was echoed by others in the area.

Another relative of Laurie Palmer said it was she who insisted on the split - so that Gene could get on with his life.

When Daily Mail Online tried to contact Mrs Palmer at her home in Plattsburgh, the door was answered by burlesque performer Todd De Croti, who is understood to be a close relative of Laurie's.

''We don't want to get involved,' De Croti said. 'I have no comment and neither does she.'

Authorities say that Mitchell - known by the nickname Tillie - persuaded Palmer to take a 12-inch long, 5-inch wide and 2-inch thick slab of hamburger meat from the tailor shop where she worked to Matt and Sweat's adjoining cells in the prison Honor Block. 

Attorney Brockway said the meat was in a Styrofoam container wrapped in cellophane and was completely frozen.

Palmer is said to have admitted to police that he did not pass the meat through a metal detector as required by prison regulations.

Burlesque performer Todd De Croti, who is understood to be a close relative of Laurie Palmer and answered her door. He told Daily Mail Online: 'We don't want to get involved'

Admired by the community: Palmer, pictured with his girlfriend in a Facebook snap, has kudos for not abandoning his ailing wife. 'Gene is one hell of a guy,' one of her relatives told Daily Mail Online

Palmer's girlfriend Mary Lamar has posted several online messages in support of him and his co-workers

That meat is said to have contained at least some of the tools that the killers used to escape. Mitchell has been charged with giving them hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit.

District attorney Andrew Wylie said that Mitchell had told cops that Palmer did not know anything was hidden inside the meat. 

His lawyer Brockway said that delivering the meat as a favor to the prisoners was part of developing a relationship with them in a bid to extract information.

'Palmer is also said to have taken Matt and Sweat on to the catwalk from which they escaped. Wylie called that action 'inappropriate but not illegal'.

Matt - who was serving 25 years to life for killing and dismembering his former boss, and lifer Sweat, a cop-killer who with an accomplice pumped 15 rounds into a sheriff's deputy, got out of their cells on to the catwalk. Then they used power tools to drill their way into a maze of steam pipes that led to the outside world.

They popped out of a manhole on Bouck Street in Dannemora - a couple of blocks from the massive prison walls that dominate the small town. The men have eluded capture ever since.

Cops admit they really have no idea where Matt and Sweat are, but believe they were in a hunting cabin in Owls Head, a hamlet near Malone, New York, on Saturday morning. It is thought they fled from there into the surrounding thick woods.

Laurie Palmer, pictured, was given the three-bedroom house she shared with Gene in Plattsburgh, while he moved into his girlfriend's tiny 800 squre foot home in Cadyville, New York

A decade ago, NPR reorter Brian Mann interviewed Palmer about Clinton Correctional Facility.

'During one of the tours,' Mann wrote, 'veteran corrections officer Gene Palmer led me to the vast North Yard, a sprawling part of the prison that is mostly controlled by inmates. 

'The way Palmer described it, this huge area of the prison is divided into a pecking order along racial lines and among different organized gangs.' 

Palmer told Mann: 'Looks crude but it works very well. They have gardens. 

'We have expensive sides - we have nice real estate here and we have poor real estate here. Over here, we have all the Italians, they've got the money, they get the nice courts over here. 

'On the wall over here, there's a man, he's a convict here - I believe he killed his wife - and he's got the best court up on top.'

Brockway said he now sees how Matt and Sweat manipulated both Palmer and Mitchell. 'He knows it is important not to become too close to the inmates,' said Brockway of his client.

David Sweat, left, and Richard Matt how they might look after several days on the run, in images produced by the police. The convicted murders fled prison on June 6

Palmer, who made his $25,000 bail on a credit card Thursday morning, did not appear in court for his scheduled arraignment in the afternoon. The case was adjourned until Monday so he could get a new lawyer. 

His current attorney Andrew Brockway said he was quitting the case because as a one-man, small-town operation, he simply could not handle the case.

'I continue to have faith in Mr. Palmer,' he told reporters outside the court.

When approached by Daily Mail Online before his arrest, Palmer - who was wearing a black Just Us T-shirt - politely but firmly said he could not comment because he 'remains under the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Corrections'. 

However his girlfriend Lamar has not been so reticent. She has posted several pieces on her Facebook page that are critical of the way prison officers have been treated at Clinton.

In particular she has singled out New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who went to Dannemora to be pictured clambering through the steam pipes within hours of the escape but has since distanced himself. 

Lamar wrote on Facebook: 'Let's not forget the photo op that day, right through a crime scene.'

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