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(NewsDakota.com) An inmate transport company has reimbursed several law enforcement agencies in North Dakota for costs associated with locating an inmate who escaped and led police on a manhunt in a cornfield.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says that California-based Extradition Transport of America has paid nearly $8,000 to several agencies to cover the cost of locating inmate Joseph Megna.

The prison transport company was moving Megna from Florida to Washington state in early October when he escaped at a rest stop near Oriska, North Dakota. Authorities flushed the 30-year-old convicted sex offender from a cornfield after a 22-hour search.

Megna says he escaped because he had not been fed properly. He was sentenced to three months in jail on a felony escape charge in Barnes County and extradited to Washington.