By KATIE MELONE
Hartford Courant Staff Writer
HARTFORD, Conn. — A 43-year-old correction officer was arrested in a state police sting last week after allegedly agreeing to smuggle heroin and a cellphone into a Suffield prison for an inmate.
The correction officer, Connie Atkins, met an undercover police officer - who was pretending to be a drug connection - in Hartford on May 21 about 7:30 p.m., according to court documents.
She agreed to smuggle 28 grams of heroin and a cellphone to an inmate at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution for $3,500, the documents allege. Moments after walking away with what she thought were contraband items, she was arrested, the document say.
Atkins, of East Hartford, was charged May 21 with criminal attempt to possess narcotics, criminal attempt to convey narcotics into a correctional institution and criminal attempt to convey a wireless communication device into a correctional institution. She was released on $10,000 bail after being arraigned Thursday. She is scheduled to be back in Superior Court in Hartford June 20.
State police learned from corrections investigators in March that Atkins was making plans with an inmate to bring drugs into McDougall-Walker, the court documents allege. The inmate, who cooperated with police in the sting, was not named in the papers.
At the instruction of police, the inmate gave Atkins the undercover officer’s telephone number to arrange a pickup, the documents say. She called the officer on May 21 and arrived at the agreed upon meeting spot in her blue Toyota Yaris. After a brief conversation on the items Atkins would take into the prison, she was handed a brown paper bag and a box, the documents say.
Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman, said Tuesday that no other members of the correctional staff are suspected of involvement in the case, though the investigation is still underway.
Copyright 2008 The Hartford Courant Company