BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury today indicted a former corrections officer at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega on charges she accepted a bribe in exchange for providing a cell phone to an inmate, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Special Agent in [...]]]>

BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury today indicted a former corrections officer at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega on charges she accepted a bribe in exchange for providing a cell phone to an inmate, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Special Agent in Charge Robert A. Bourbon.

A two-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges correctional officer STACIE MARIE GARDNER, 31, of Weaver, with accepting $1,474, sent via Western Union in January 2015, in exchange for smuggling contraband into the prison. The indictment also charges that Gardner smuggled a cell phone into the prison and provided it to an inmate in exchange for the payment.

The maximum penalty for receipt of a bribe by a public official is 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for providing contraband to a federal prisoner is one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

DOJ OIG investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Davis A. Barlow is prosecuting.