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Hyder
WILKES-BARRE – One of the men charged with smuggling drugs into the Luzerne County Correctional Facility told authorities he had supplied a prescription medication to former deputy warden Sam Hyder, according to court documents.
Kevin Warman, a former nurse at the prison, told a statewide grand jury that he supplied Hyder with Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, from 2007 to 2009, according to an indictment issued Thursday.
The indictment said Warman testified he supplied Hyder 30 to 60 tablets per month. Hyder requested the medication, he said, because he was having trouble dealing with the stress associated with his job, specifically pressures that came about relating to the Luzerne County debit card scandal.
“Warman testified that Sam Hyder was consuming so many tablets so frequently that he feared that Hyder was becoming drug dependent on the medication,” the indictment says.
Hyder could not be reached for comment Thursday. His attorney, Peter Moses of Wilkes-Barre, said Warman’s allegations “aren’t even worth a response.”
“The statement you refer to is a statement from one individual who has criminal charges pending against him,” Moses said. “Mr. Warman is charged with felonies. Mr. Hyder is not. Take that for what it’s worth.”
Moses went on to say that there “is nothing to indicate” that Hyder committed any crime or acted unprofessionally.
“I’m certain if those allegations were out there I would know about them,” Moses said.
The allegations against Hyder are contained in a nine-page indictment issued by a statewide grand jury that was hearing evidence of drug smuggling within the county prison.
The grand jury investigation resulted in charges being filed by the state Office of Attorney General against Warman and three other current or former guards at the prison. No charges have been filed against Hyder.
Warman told the grand jury that he obtained the medication for Hyder by using the name of a former inmate to fill the prescriptions. He said he was able to do so because there was no checks and balances system within the prison to track the number of prescriptions sent out to different pharmacies.
Hyder served as deputy warden from 2004 to January 2010, when the county’s prison board voted to furlough him from the $74,263-a-year position. His tenure was rocked by controversy from the start.
His selection to the post was questioned because he was a good friend of former Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, who sat on the prison board at the time.
Hyder again came under scrutiny in 2007, when it was revealed he had used a county debit card to pay for drinks at a Las Vegas strip club. The controversy continued in 2008, when it was revealed prison officials had improperly broken down food contracts at the prison to avoid competitive bidding requirements.
After he was furloughed, Hyder sought to collect workers’ compensation, claiming he blacked out in August 2009 due to stressors related to the job.
A judge who heard his case denied his request in September, saying he did not believe the stressors were abnormal for the position.
First reported at
4:58 p.m.
timesleader.com