Jail Guards Admit Supplying Contraband To Inmates

Jail Guards Admit Supplying Contraband To Inmates

(CBS) LOS ANGELES Two jail guards admitted Thursday that they took thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle contraband cell phones to inmates at a downtown Los Angeles lockup.

Former guard Juan Cortes, 34, pleaded guilty to a felony bribery count and a misdemeanor count of supplying contraband to a prison inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where defendants are kept while awaiting trial on federal charges. In pleading guilty, the San Diego resident admitted taking a $6,000 bribe last April to give an MDC inmate a cell phone and three cartons of cigarettes.

Three-year Bureau of Prisons veteran Ricardo Campos, 26, of El Monte, pleaded guilty to the same charges, acknowledging he took a $5,000 bribe in exchange for giving an MDC inmate a cell phone last May.

Both men could face up to a maximum sentence of 15 1/2 years in federal prison, plus fines, when they are sentenced by U.S. District Judge Manuel Real on July 17.

In Campos' case, prosecutors have agreed to recommend that he receive about 10-16 months in prison, but his attorney, David Cohn, said he is hopeful he can persuade the judge to sentence his client to probation.

The former guard, who began work in May 2005 as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custodial agent in the San Diego area, was put on administrative leave by ICE in November after state charges were brought against him in a separate case accusing him of forgery and identity theft.

In addition to potential prison time and fines, both men could be barred from holding "any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States."

In announcing the charges, U.S. Attorney Debra Wong Yang said officials in the penal system "must always abide by a bright line of acceptable and legal conduct."

"Those who break their promise to uphold the law not only risk losing their jobs, they risk losing their freedom," Yang said.

Two other guards, Anthony Robuffo and Juan Nieto, are also charged in the case. They have pleaded not guilty.

Since 2004, cigarettes have been almost totally banned in federal prisons and correctional facilities.

The MDC, located on Alameda Street near the Hollywood Freeway, housesnearly 1,000 inmates, according to the Bureau of Prisons Web site.