News in Brief:
Arizona: On June 6, 2007, Phoenix police arrested Loren Williamson, 33, a guard at the Federal Correctional Institution in Phoenix on charges that he raped a girl repeatedly for six years from the time she was six years old until the date of his arrest.
Arizona: On October 16, 2007, Christopher Johnston, 34, an employee of Correctional Medical Services at the Pima county jail was arrested on charges he sexually assaulted female prisoners in the course of his employment.
California: On October 22, 2007, Stevem Irysh, 23, a guard at the San Luis Obispo county jail was arrested and charged with exposing himself to female jail prisoners and also offering them candy bars in exchange for them exposing themselves to him. He was charged with misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure and being a jail employee engaged in sexual conduct with a prisoner.
California: On January 11, 2007, Kern county jail guards Donal Lungren and Patrick Holloway were charged with selling and possessing marijuana. Guard Josh Bankston was charged with felony cocaine possession. The drugs were seized in the guards' homes and vehicles.
Canada: On October 27, 2007, Richard McNair, 48, was captured in Canada, 18 months after he escaped from the US Penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana by hiding in a pallet of mailbags made by Federal Prison Industries. McNair had been sentenced to life in prison for a botched 1987 robbery that resulted in his shooting a man and killing another. After escaping twice from North Dakota prisons he was transferred to the federal prison system. McNair had also worked as an informant with the Minot police department, before his own arrest, and was credited by police with contributing "to at least one sizeable cocaine bust." McNair was promptly extradited to the US and arraigned on escape charges in Louisiana. He was arrested by Royal Canadian Mounted Police during a traffic stop in New Brunswick.
Colorado: On October 23, 2007, Colleen Frazier, 33, a cook at the Pueblo County Jail employed by Aramark Food Services was arrested on charges of smuggling drugs into the jail. At the time of her arrest inside the jail she had an envelope with five pills each of Percocet and Vicodan.
Connecticut: On October 15, 2007, Anthony Erodici, 37, a state prison guard for 13 years, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for cocaine trafficking. At his sentencing Erodici claimed he became involved in drug trafficking to feed his own addiction to cocaine.
Florida: In July, 2007, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement gave all Florida prisoners a deck of 104 cards requesting tips and leads on some of the state's unsolved murders and missing persons cases. In October they received their first tip, relating to the 2004 murder of James Foote in Ft. Myers. FDLE officials said they were working on their next deck of cards.
Florida: on October 27, 2007, Shawn Heath, a Lake County jail guard, was arrested for exposing himself to women on a sidewalk in Lake Mary. After women screamed Heath ran from the scene buttoning his pants and tried to evade police by jumping into a retention pond. Upon being arrested police found he had a duffel bag containing Hello Kitty body lotion and baby oil. Heath denied he was exposing himself to passersby and instead claimed he was urinating.
Florida: On October 8, 2007, Edward Williams, 47, a prisoner at the Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City got into a fight with another prisoner and injured his hands. Three days later he underwent hand surgery at Larkin Community Hospital and on October 14 died of a pulmonary thromboembolism. Police are investigating the cause of his death.
Kentucky: In mid October, 2007, 13 prisoners at the Bureau of Prisons' troubled Big Sandy prison in Inez were indicted on charges ranging from heroin and weapons possession to allegedly assaulting guards.
Minnesota: In October, 2007, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension claimed to be shocked, surprised and embarrassed to learn it was using a convicted and unregistered sex offender, Craig Allen Hartline, 55, as an undercover informant to buy drugs and guns in the city of Duluth. The BCA is in charge of enforcing sex offender registration in the state. It is illegal for convicted felons to own or possess firearms. BCA claimed not to know that Hartline was a sex offender. In trial testimony Hartline claimed in the previous 24 years he had been an informant for more than 10 different police agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms because that was "the career I've chosen." A successful one apparently as he claimed to have carried out more than 7,500 controlled buys of guns and drugs resulting in over 3,000 felony arrests. He also admitted to three DUI convictions, a domestic violence conviction and to sexually assaulting a woman while he was working as an informant and to not having paid taxes since 1983 and not having a driver's license to boot. BCA said that as soon as they learned Hartline was a sex offender they made him register while he continued in their employ. Hartline did not show up on any online search of sex offender registries carried out by PLN staff.
New Mexico: On October 10, 2007, Anthony Townes, 33, a guard at the Camino Nuevo women's prison in Albuquerque was arrested and charged with raping four female prisoners. The prison is operated by Corrections Corporation of America.
North Carolina: On October 3, 2007, Hollis Britt, 61, a former North Carolina Highway patrolman, was suspended from his job as a pretrial response officer with the Robeson county pretrial release program for allegedly sexually assaulting female prisoners in the program, which monitors detainees awaiting trial on house arrest. Britt was hired for the job despite having served five years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for shooting his wife of eight months to death in 1979. It appears that Mr. Britt has issues with women.
Norway: On October 28, 2007, prisoners at the Arendal prison helped put out a fire that broke out rather than try to escape. They also rescued a prisoner from the blaze as well. In return the prison hosted a party for the prisoners.
Ohio: On October 29, 2007, Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn announced that unknown persons had stolen over $30,000 from the jail's commissary account by counterfeiting checks and using forged identities to withdraw the money over several months. The money was electronically transferred from the fund to which prisoners have money deposited to make commissary purchases. Wasylyshyn announced changes to jail procedures to detect such thefts earlier. The bank where the funds are kept has agreed to reimburse the jail for the stolen money.
Russia: On October 22, 2007, juvenile prisoners at the Kirovgrad prison began a protest over the transfer of a prisoner to a pretrial detention center. Apparently acting on a rumor that the guards had blank ammunition in their rifles, the prisoners began tearing down a fence. Prison guards then opened fire with automatic rifles that contained live ammunition.
The prisoners then retreated and set fire to several buildings inside the prison compound. Ministry of the Interior (OMON) riot police then stormed the prison to regain control. When all was said and done two juvenile prisoners and a guard were dead and 15 prisoners were hospitalized with injuries.
Tennessee: On October 15, 2007, Linda Darby, 64, was arrested in Pulaski on charges that she escaped from the Indiana Women's Prison in 1972 by climbing over a fence. She had been sentenced in 1970 to life in prison for murdering her husband. Apparently Darby had led a law-abiding life since her prison escape.
Texas: On October 29, 2007, David Sauceda, 27, a prisoner in the Bexar county jail in San Antonio who was awaiting trial on murder charges escaped from the jail posing as his cellmate Michel Garcia and walking out after Garcia had his bond posted. It took jail officials six hours to realize Sauceda had escaped. Jail officials claim both Sauceda and Garcia are members of the Mexican Mafia.
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