By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — With a pound of tobacco going for $9,000, a pound of marijuana $40,000 and a cellphone up to $500, it’s not surprising Ohio officials want to keep contraband out of state prisons.
But an investigation by Inspector General Randall Meyer concluded that prison employees were overzealous when they made a contraband seizure last year on private property where they had no authority to act.
Meyer said that the employees, led by Scott Thompson, institutional investigator at the Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient, exceeded their authority on May 27, 2011, when they confronted William Card, then a maintenance worker at the prison, and three females in the parking lot of the Darby Creek Bar, 11809 Darby Creek Rd., not far from the prison. Of five state employees involved, three were armed.
They did find contraband — lots of it: a pound of marijuana, 3 pounds of tobacco, 95 cigars, two cellphones with chargers, and $500 in cash.
Meyer’s report, released yesterday, cited no specific charges against the state workers. However, he referred the matter to the Pickaway County prosecutor for possible action.
Meyer, a former corrections officer, said he is “sensitive to the disruption and officer-safety issues caused by contraband in our prison populations and the importance of stopping its movement at every turn. At the same time, we must be mindful of the obligation of every enforcement officer to operate within the limits of their legal authority and jurisdiction.”
JoEllen Smith, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said the agency is reviewing the report and will respond to the inspector general. None of the employees has been disciplined, Smith said. Card retired on Aug. 1.
The matter began when prison officials learned of a possible contraband exchange by monitoring phone calls between an undisclosed inmate and his girlfriend in Springfield, Ohio. The state employees — Thompson, Scott Filicky, Mark Herubin, and D.J. Norris, all parole officers, and Kevin Molinatto, a corrections officer — placed Card and the girlfriend under surveillance.
The surveillance team observed Card and three women in a separate vehicle arrive at the bar parking lot. After they saw Card get a large, blue bag from a woman in the other vehicle, the team closed in, blocking the cars from leaving.
Card was handcuffed and briefly detained at the scene, but there were no arrests at the time or since.
The inspector general also faulted Jim Schlotterbeck, a State Highway Patrol plainclothes officer assigned to the prison, for failing to take a more “direct role” in the situation, about which he had been kept abreast.
Copyright 2012 The Columbus Dispatch