Getting out of jail shouldn’t be a problem if you’re a drug kingpin. In one particular case, a correction officer at Rikers Correctional Facility offered to help an inmate break out in exchange for $100,ooo in coke. Yesterday (May 30), the now former CO was found guilty of charges including drug possession, conspiracy and bribery, though.
Gothamist reports:
Two years ago, we discovered just how much the going rate was to pay off a guard to help you escape Rikers Island: $100K in cocaine. Today, former corrections officer Robert Whitfield has been found guilty for participating in that sort of transaction. And it all would have worked out swell if the inmate hadn’t turned him in.
During the trial, it came out that Whitfield had bragged that he could alter the inmate’s records by accessing a New York City Department of Correction computer. Whitfield, a Queens resident and 21-year veteran, approached several inmates at the jail before finding one who would agree to pay his fee for the plot. The inmate reported it to authorities though.
In April 2011, Whitfield was promptly set up, selling thee kilos of blow to an undercover posing as an inmates cousin. When sentenced, Whitfield will receive up to 20 years in jail.
Correctional officers stay losing. Earlier this year, a federal CO was arrested for getting impregnated by an inmate, who is a convicted cop killer. We couldn’t make this up if we tried folks.
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Photo: New York Daily News
