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Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #616)
Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues

A sticky-fingering, meth-snorting cop goes away for awhile, and a trio of jail guards get in trouble. Let's get to it:

seized cash
In Glendora, California, a former Glendora police officer was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail, three years of probation, and a 24-month drug rehabilitation program after pleading no contest to grand theft and methamphetamine possession charges. Timothy Radogna, 34, was arrested in May in an "integrity sting" after superiors received reports he was failing to book drugs and cash into evidence. Police left meth and $1,000 in cash in a bait car, and Radogna took the bait. He could have gotten up to nine years.

In Beaumont, Texas, a former Texas Department of Corrections guard pleaded guilty Monday to trying to smuggle drugs and a cell phone into the Stiles Unit in his lunchbox. Eric Talmore, 25, copped pleas to bribery and having a prohibited substance in a correctional facility. He got busted with tobacco in his socks, rolling papers in his underwear, and marijuana and a cell phone hidden inside a container of fried rice. He faces up to 30 years in prison when sentenced on February 16, but his attorney is asking for probation.

In Manchester, Kentucky, a Clay County Detention Center guard was arrested Sunday on charges she smuggled drugs to inmates in the jail. Guard Dawn Hayes, 31, fell prey to an undercover investigation by the County Sheriff's Office, taking drugs to be smuggled into the jail from a confidential informant. Hayes is currently residing at her place of employment.

In Chesterton, Indiana, an Indiana State Prison guard was arrested January 2 for trying to smuggle tobacco and marijuana into the prison. Barb Roseborough, a nine-year veteran, got caught when prison staff found a package wrapped in electrical tape hidden in the lining of her bag as she reported for work. A second package was later found hidden on her person. She has been charged with trafficking with an offender and felony marijuana possession. She faces from two to eight years on the first count and up to three years on the second. At last report, she was being held at the LaPorte County Jail.

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Comments

Pray4Peace (not verified)

Regardless of how one feels about the misguided marijuana laws, providing drugs to those who are incarcerated is really dispectable.

Inmates have enough trouble reforming and turning their lives around in the overcrowded warehouses of today's prison. It is deplorable when those whose job it is to reform inmates, bring in the very substance that sent many of them to prison in the first place.

Sat, 01/16/2010 - 5:59pm Permalink
Norma (not verified)

In reply to by Pray4Peace (not verified)

Whenever you make something illegal you immediately raise the value of something.

I can understand the marijuana restrictions in our prisons...it's illegal on the outside too....but cigarettes !?

The moment we made them contraband in our prisons in Oklahoma I knew their value would go up enough to cause this kind of response. I have also heard what desparate people are substituting for lack of tobacco! It's not pretty.

tobacco is now a commodity with huge monetary value inside our prisons. It is traded for sex,clothes, favors and food. The only way to fix this problem is to make it available inside the walls again.

Sun, 01/17/2010 - 7:42am Permalink
maxwood (not verified)

Previous poster has brought up an important point. On the one hand, if punitive cold turn(k)ey really works, banning prisoners tobackgo would be a good idea. On the other hand, maybe hot burning overdose $igarettes, not tobackgo per se, are the character-deformation drug which creates a high percentage of criminality. Then it would be both just and humane to allow prisoners who register as nicotine addicts the use of a VAPORIZER or E-CIGARETTE, pending participation in therapeutic work-study and other rehab programs.

Tue, 01/19/2010 - 7:24pm Permalink

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