Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne County prison guard who was implicated, but not charged, in connection with a drug-smuggling operation within the county prison has been suspended pending further investigation, Warden Joseph Piazza said.
Cpl. Joseph Ciampi, a 21-year veteran at the prison, was suspended without pay on Friday, Warden Joseph Piazza said.
Ciampi was identified as one of the persons who purchased cocaine from Chris Walsh, a fellow prison guard who was among four people arrested Thursday by the state Office of Attorney General following a 13-month grand jury investigation.
Grand jury records released Thursday revealed that Ciampi testified before the grand jury in April that he had purchased cocaine from Walsh on several occasions between 2008 and 2009.
Ciampi, who began cooperating with authorities, also recorded a conversation between himself and Walsh in which Walsh coaches him on how he should testify before the grand jury, according to the documents.
Piazza said Friday he knew of the grand jury investigation but was not aware of Ciampi’s involvement in the case until Friday, when he read the grand jury report.
Former deputy warden Sam Hyder was also identified as a person who obtained drugs from one of the other four defendants, former nurse Kevin Warman, according to the report. Warman testified that he had supplied Hyder with 30 to 60 tablets per month of Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, from 2007 to 2009.
Hyder has not been charged. His attorney, Peter Moses, on Thursday denied the allegations.
By law, a state grand jury can recommend charges, but the actual charges are filed by a law enforcement agency, said Nils Hagen Frederiksen, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office.
The grand jury did not recommend charges be filed against Ciampi or Hyder. Frederiksen said he could not say why the grand jury opted to make the recommendations it did.
“The only thing we can comment on is what the grand jury has recommended. At this time, the grand jury has recommended charges against the four individuals we arrested (Thursday),” Frederiksen said. “If there is additional evidence developed or if additional information becomes available, we will pursue that.”
The grand jury did not recommend charges be filed against (Joseph) Ciampi or (Sam) Hyder.