NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Two corrections officers and an attorney with access to inmates smuggled contraband including drugs and cellphones into a northern New Jersey jail, according to federal charges announced on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said the jail guards and the lawyer were among nine people charged in what Fishman called “a contraband marketplace” that had been operating inside a federal pretrial detention facility at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark.
Prosecutors said Corrections Officer Stephon Solomon, 26, of Irvington, allegedly smuggled contraband including cellphones, tobacco and marijuana on at least five occasions to 29-year-old inmate Quasim Nichols in exchange for cash bribes.
Nichols, who is jailed on an unrelated federal charge, allegedly sold the items he received from Solomon to other inmates, who paid using Western Union money transfers obtained through family and friends, according to court papers.
Investigators said two of Nichols’ associates outside of prison, 28-year-old Darsell Davis and 30-year-old Dwayne Harper, both of Newark, allegedly acted as a go-between for the cash-contraband transfers.
Also charged on Wednesday were Corrections Officer Channel Lespinasse, 25, of Florham Park, attorney Brian Kapalin, 66, of Maplewood, and inmate Muhammad Subpunallah, 32. Prosecutors also charged Deidra Harrison, 49, of Newark, and Vladimir Sauzereseteo, 40, of East Orange, with helping from outside of the prison.
All the defendants face charges of conspiring to provide contraband to inmates at the jail, which carries a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for smuggling marijuana or one year in prison and a $100,000 maximum fine for smuggling a cellphone. Several of the defendants face additional charges.
It was not immediately known Wednesday if any of the defendants had retained attorneys.
Prosecutors say Kapalin abused his attorney access to smuggle in contraband, even using the jail’s attorney conference room to deliver marijuana to an inmate, according to court papers. Prosecutors say Kapalin allegedly worked with Subpunallah, who is incarcerated on unrelated charges, and Sauzereseteo to deliver the contraband in exchange for cash bribes.
Lespinasse, a corrections officer at the Essex County facility, and her alleged associate, Harrison, agreed to smuggle a cellphone to an inmate in the jail in exchange for a $1,000 cash bribe, according to court papers. Prosecutors say Harrison accepted the cash and phone from an undercover officer in a McDonald’s parking lot, and Lespinasse delivered the cellphone to an inmate three days later.
Essex County Spokesman Anthony Puglisi said that people sneaking contraband into jails is a constant problem and that there are periodic facility lock downs to conduct cell-by-cell contraband searches.
Puglisi said that Lespinasse and Solomon had been suspended from their jobs and hearings were underway to withhold their pay.
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