Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

This week, we have our mandatory greedy jail guards, and another case that's a little stickier. Are the people in our first story corrupt cops or desperate pain patients or addicts or pill peddlers or some combination of the above? You be the judge. Let's get to it:

In Dickson City, Pennsylvania, a former borough police officer who allegedly stole 6,000 prescription painkillers in June was rearrested Monday for filing a false police report to obtain more of the drugs. Angela Novack, 23, first ran into trouble earlier this year when she was charged with theft, possession of a controlled substance, and other counts for stealing pills from the Olyphant Pharmacy. She was arrested along with her boyfriend, Robert Santarelli, another former cop, who was charged with obtaining drugs through fraud, forgery or deception for allegedly visiting nine different emergency room doctors to have prescriptions filled for oxycodone and fentanyl patches. He then took those prescriptions to five different area pharmacies, according to the attorney general's office. Santarelli had already pleaded guilty in April to stealing a rifle, marijuana and hypodermic needles from the Jessup Police Department's evidence room. He was suspended in February 2006, then fired in May. Novack had been a part-time officer at the Dickson City Police Department until she resigned by mutual agreement for unspecified reasons.

In Belen, New Mexico, a jail guard was arrested Tuesday afternoon as he met with a man he thought was delivering him heroin to be passed on to an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was employed. He agreed to do the deed for $1,000. The courier turned out to be an undercover cop, and guard Jeremy Redbear, 22, is now charged with drug trafficking. He was last reported to be behind bars at the Valencia County Jail nearby.

In Lisbon, Ohio, a former jail guard was sentenced last Friday to 18 months in prison for smuggling marijuana onto the grounds of the Columbiana County Jail. Former guard Gary Ludt, 37, was busted last September as he brought marijuana and tobacco into the jail to sell to inmates. He pleaded guilty in August to one third-degree felony count of attempted illegal conveyance of prohibited items onto the grounds of a detention facility and a fourth-degree felony count of illegal conveyance of prohibited items onto the grounds of a detention facility.