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CITY (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 22 hours manhunt in a Barnes County cornfield.

Megna moments after he surrendered to a Valley City police officer in a cornfield northeast of Oriska. Photo by Steve Urness.

Barnes County has not settled with the company and is seeking nearly $43,000 for the cost to the Sheriff’s department and to area farmers who harvested a field to flush out the suspect. Some of those costs include corn drying and shrinkage lost to the owner of the cornfield.

Barnes County Sheriff Randy McClaflin being interviewed by the media the day Megna was captured out of a cornfield and surrendered to a Valley City police officer. Photo by Steve Urness.

Sheriff Randy McClaflin said his department is asking for $4,700 in costs related to the search and capture of Joseph Megna. He says farmers are seeking $38,000 for their costs associated in the search.

The Valley City police department has not settled with the company either and is seeking more than $3,000 dollars to cover their costs associated in the search of Mega.

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

Jamestown & Stutsman County swat team members help by searching a cornfield near Oriska rest stop on October 4 after Megna's escape. Photo by Steve Urness.

The prison transport company was moving Megna from Florida to Washington State on October 4 when he escaped from the transport van at a rest stop near Oriska.

(Border Patrol helicopter used in search for inmate. Photos by Steve Urness.

Authorities flushed the 30-year-old convicted sex offender out of 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 State.

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