SHAWSKANK’S SAGA

Insists sex with escaped killer was forced

“Shawskank” prison employee Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell claims killer escapee Richard Matt forced her into oral sex, but denies they ever had intercourse.

Mitchell’s voice shook in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show as she explained her relationship with the nowdead jailbreaker.

“Mr. Matt had grabbed me a couple of times and kissed me,” Mitchell said in a portion of the interview that aired Monday.

“And then there was one point where he had . . . he wanted me to perform oral sex on him. And I said, ‘no.’ And when I said ‘no,’ he grabbed my head and pushed me down.”

Mitchell denied having any sexual contact with Matt’s fellow escapee, David Sweat.

And, she insisted, “There was never any consensual [sexual contact with Matt].”

Earlier in the chat, Mitchell denied having “sexual intercourse” with the man who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora on June 6.

Matt was killed by a US Border Patrol agent on June 26. Sweat was shot and captured on June 28.

The threeweeklong manhunt cost taxpayers $20 million in overtime pay, according to state estimates.

Mitchell acknowledged her wrongdoing.

“It’s nerveracking [being in jail] because it’s not some place I ever expected to be,” said Mitchell, wearing prisoners garb at the Clinton County Jail. “I did wrong, I deserved to be punished.”

She admitted striking up improper friendships with the two convicted murderers, saying she regularly brought them cookies and brownies before they asked her to bring tools that they eventually used to bust out.

“I [gave] them the stuff because they had threatened me,” Mitchell told NBC News.

“It was Mr. Matt. He looked at me one day and said, ‘ You know, Joyce, I do love you,’ and I said, ‘I love my husband.’ And a little while after that, he wanted to get rid of [kill my husband] Lyle,” Mitchell said.

The killers knew all the right emotional buttons to push, she explained.

“At the time that everything happened, I was going through a time where I didn’t feel like my husband loved me anymore,” Mitchell said. “I was going through depression and I guess they saw my weakness and that’s how it all started.”

She’s scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28.

Mitchell has pleaded guilty to felony smuggling contraband. She could get between 2 ¹ /₃ years and seven years behind bars.

Mitchell’s lawyer hopes she’ll spend no more than four years locked up because she’ll be released early for good behavior.