BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A former supervisor at Louisiana’s largest maximum-security prison was arrested Tuesday on charges that he misused funds from a club for prison employees to make personal purchases.
Sidney Davis, formerly a major at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, was jailed in Baton Rouge on charges including malfeasance in office, state Attorney General Jeff Landry’s office said in a statement.
Davis, 52, served as assistant chief of the prison’s fire department. A January report by the state legislative auditor’s office says Davis used a debit card for the Angola Hook and Ladder Club to make more than $4,200 in “questionable” purchases between May 2013 and May 2016.
Landry’s office said Davis misused his position and illegally accessed funds designed to supplement the fire department’s budget.
“My office and I will continue in our efforts to end Louisiana’s scarred reputation of corruption,” Landry said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Davis has an attorney.
The Advocate newspaper reported in November that Davis had worked at the prison since 1986. Ken Pastorick, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said Davis retired March 13.
Davis told investigators that he accidentally used the club’s debit card to make nearly $2,200 in purchases for his own benefit, including razor blades, nasal spray, sunglasses and two sofas, according to the auditor’s report. Davis claimed other purchases, including cameras and an air gun, had a legitimate business purpose, the report said.
The same report also found that Angola’s former warden, Burl Cain, may have violated state law by using prison resources and public funds to renovate and furnish his homes. Nearly $28,000 in public money was used for the unauthorized purchase of appliances and household furnishings for Cain’s home on prison grounds, the audit found.
Cain, who resigned last year after two decades in charge of the prison, hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing.
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