Wichita ? A former prison guard romantically involved with one of the two inmates she helped escape pleaded guilty Friday to a federal firearms charge, telling family members she now realizes she was used.

“She also feels like one of the world’s greatest fools,” her mother, Laurie Ann Nutter, said. “She realizes now there wasn’t anything real in the relationship. She feels so extremely foolish, she is angry about it.”

Nutter spoke to The Associated Press the day before Amber Lynn Goff, 24, pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge in exchange for reduced charges and a recommendation by prosecutors for a five-year prison term and three years probation. She also agreed to pay $11,000 in restitution.

As part of the plea deal, three other federal firearms charges would be dropped at the time of sentencing. The state agreed not to prosecute Goff on additional state charges.

District Judge Wesley Brown temporarily sealed a memorandum to the plea agreement, ruling without elaborating that he found “good cause” to do so.

Lyndon Vix, an attorney for The Associated Press and The Wichita Eagle, argued in court that the First Amendment protected access to judicial records and proceedings, and courts have upheld that right except where there is a compelling interest to seal records.

“If this document were sealed, speculation about what it might concern would do more damage than what it might concern,” Vix said.

Goff pleaded guilty to the first count of knowingly disposing of firearms to a previously convicted felon.

Brown deferred a decision to accept or reject the plea until he sees a sentencing report. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 20.

Goff was indicted in November on four federal firearms charges related to the Oct. 28, 2007, escape of Jesse Bell, 34, and Steven Ford, 27, from maximum security exercise pens at the El Dorado Correctional Facility. The three were arrested in Grants, N.M., early Oct. 31.

In a written statement filed as part of the plea deal, Goff wrote that she received a cell phone call from Ford on the evening of the escape. She said she used bolt cutters to cut through the padlock securing an outer gate and drove onto the grounds of the facility.

“I approached the outermost wire perimeter fence on foot and used bolt cutters to cut through this fence in order to assist Ford and Bell in their escape from the El Dorado Correctional facility,” Goff said in the statement.

“In addition to the bolt cutters, I had two sets of wire cutters,” she wrote. “I attempted to throw one set of wire cutters over both perimeter fences onto the prison grounds, but this pair of wire cutters hit the top of the outer fence and fell to the ground outside of the fence where I was waiting. I then successfully threw a second set of wire cutters over both the fences.”

U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said after the plea hearing that federal prosecutors worked closely with Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield and determined that federal charges would be “more appropriate” for the offense than were obtainable under state law.

Satterfield said it would have been more difficult to get a prison term for Goff under state law because she had no prior criminal record.

Goff’s family said she had a romantic relationship with Ford before the escape.

In a lengthy prepared statement, Nutter said the family fully expects Goff to pay a price for her actions – but sharply criticized the investigation of the escape, saying the prison break would not have been possible without the negligence or involvement of many others working at the prison that night.

The two escaped inmates are awaiting trial in New Mexico, where they face federal charges of being fugitives in possession of firearms and possessing stolen firearms and ammunition.