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Two current and a pair of former employees charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.
Prison guard Jason Fierman was arraigned on drug-trafficking charges at Magisterial District Judge Martin Kane’s office on Thursday.
Pete g. wilcox/the times leader
Prison guard Christopher Walsh, who was arrested on drug charges Thursday, has been suspended without pay.
Pete g. wilcox/the times leader
Prison guard Jason Fierman, who was arrested Thursday on drug charges, has been suspended without pay.
Pete g. wilcox/the times leader
Four current and former employees at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility were arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.
The arrests resulted from a 13-month grand jury investigation, titled “Operation Broken Trust,” into reports of cocaine and prescription-drug trafficking inside and outside the county prison. Deputy Attorney General Timothy M. Doherty said the probe investigated all employees of the prison, and the arrests do not mark its end. More likely, he said, “it’s only the beginning.”
The defendants arrested Thursday afternoon are: Kevin Domonick Warman, 50, of Hillside Avenue, Edwardsville; John Matthew Carey, 37, of Rutter Avenue, Kingston; Jason D. Fierman, 35, Midland Drive, Dallas; and Christopher J. Walsh, 28, of New Street, Pittston.
Fierman and Walsh are currently employed as guards at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility and were arrested at the prison on Water Street in Wilkes-Barre. Warman formerly worked as a nurse at the prison, and Carey is a former guard captain.
Prison Warden Joseph Piazza said he was aware of the investigation “from the beginning,” though he was not privy to all the details.
He said the prison “had some anonymous tips of people bringing some stuff in, that’s why we turned it over to the authorities.”
Affidavits state the initial allegations were brought to the Attorney General’s Office during a major wiretap investigation involving cocaine trafficking in Luzerne County resulting in the arrests of 22.
County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said the commissioners have also known about the investigation for several months.
“We applaud the efforts of the Attorney General’s Office in continuing to clean up the corruption and crime within county government,” Urban said.
Piazza said Fierman and Walsh would be suspended without pay until a court hearing is held. Urban said the Luzerne County Prison Board would discuss the issue further at its meeting Monday.
The four defendants were arraigned Friday before District Judge Martin Kane, Wilkes-Barre. Kane, noting their “non-cooperation with the Attorney General’s Office,” set bail at $5,000 straight bail for Fierman and Walsh. Carey and Warman were released on unsecured bail.
Officers from the Attorney General’s Office said Fierman and Walsh would be placed in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of bail, for their safety. A preliminary hearing has been set for March 17 at 10 a.m.
The affidavit states Warman, a nurse who formerly supervised the infirmary at the prison, used fictitious names or the names of former inmates to purchase prescription medication on behalf of the prison. Warman was terminated from the prison in 2009.
Warman testified before a grand jury that he would distribute the medication to prison employees, including former Deputy Warden Sam Hyder. Warman said he would provide Hyder with 30 to 60 tablets of the anxiety medication Xanax and that Hyder said he needed the drug to deal with the stress associated with his position; specifically, with the Luzerne County debit card scandal.
Hyder was furloughed from the prison in January 2010, then unsuccessfully filed a worker’s compensation claim, claiming county Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla had threatened to get rid of him and pushed for the hiring or promotion of people he did not believe were qualified.
Warman said there was no system of checks and balances in place at the infirmary to track the number of prescriptions sent out to different pharmacies and the names on each prescription, allowing him to order prescriptions using fake names or the names of former inmates without fear of anyone auditing his invoices.
The Attorney General’s Office also alleges that Carey, a former captain at the prison, received deliveries of cocaine from other prison employees and former inmates. He also purchased cocaine from or provided cocaine to several individuals linked to a large-scale cocaine trafficking ring involving members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club who were arrested in a 2009 drug sting, the Attorney General’s Office said in a press release.
John Gonda, a former correctional officer arrested in the same sting, Operation Avalanche, testified before a grand jury that he delivered cocaine to Carey, his supervisor at the time, on approximately nine occasions. Gonda also said that Walsh provided him with cocaine on two occasions.
Two inmates, Todd Junevitz and James Dormio, also testified Fierman provided the controlled substance Suboxone to Dormio on several occasions. Dormio also said he purchased heroin in Fierman’s presence.
According to affidavits filed Thursday:
Warman is charged with one count of delivery of a controlled substance and one count of acquisition or obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge.
Carey is charged with one count each of delivery of cocaine and possession of cocaine.
Fierman is charged with one count each of delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance.
Walsh is charged with one count each of delivery of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance.
Also named in the indictment is training officer and current LCCF employee Joseph Ciampi. On April 13, Ciampi told Attorney General representatives that Walsh brought cocaine to his house on Christmas Eve of 2008, that he subsequently bought cocaine from Walsh on three or four occasions and that Walsh approached him in 2009 and told him there was a lot of money to be made selling cocaine to other prison guards.
Piazza said Ciampi is still employed by the prison but could not say whether he would be disciplined because he had not read the affidavit against him.
Piazza said he thinks “good and bad” will come from the charges.
“The good thing is, we’re getting rid of people who might be dirty and doing bad things,” he said.
“The bad thing is, everybody gets painted with the same brush. There’s good people that work here and come here to work every day and work hard, and now they look bad because of this.”
First reported at
3 p.m.
timesleader.com