Tuesday, January 26, 1999
Prison guard waives drug case hearing
Bond reduced on charges of smuggling
BY RANDY McNUTT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP — The case against a prison guard accused of trying to smuggle drugs into Lebanon Correctional Institution (LCI) last week will go to the Butler County grand jury.
James Earl Smith, 35, of Dayton waived a preliminary hearing in Area III Court in West Chester on Monday.
On Thursday, Mr. Smith was arrested at LCI in Warren County after sheriff's deputies said they watched an informant give him a $250 “delivery fee” and 4 ounces of marijuana in the parking lot of a restaurant just over the Butler County line near the prison.
According to authorities, Mr. Smith charged a fee to deliver drugs to LCI inmates, who then possibly bartered or sold them to other prisoners. Mr. Smith told police he had smuggled drugs into the prison before, officials said.
He faces charges in Butler, Warren and Montgomery counties.
In Butler, authorities have charged Mr. Smith with two misdemeanors (falsification and permitting drug abuse) and a felony (preparing drugs for sale).
At Monday's hearing, Michelle Nickel, a Hamilton attorney appointed to represent Mr. Smith, asked for a reduction in his $10,000 bond. She said her client has two children to take care of, and he is a 20-year resident of the Dayton area.
Judge Hendrickson reduced the bond to 10 percent.
Warren County authorities have charged Mr. Smith with illegal conveyance of marijuana onto the prison grounds. He also faces a contempt of court charge filed by Montgomery County in a juvenile court case.
Ms. Nickel said illegal conveyance is a fourth-degree felony that carries a 12-month mandatory sentence.
Meanwhile, state officials are still investigating how Mr. Smith, who has a felony record for forgery, evaded background checks to be hired as a guard. When arrested, he had two Ohio driver's licenses and two state identification cards, all bearing different names with Mr. Smith's photo, Butler County sheriff's officials said.
Joe Andrews, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said a fingerprint check was run Monday on Mr. Smith through the National Crime Information Center, but turned up nothing. A second check, being done through FBI computers, will take longer to complete.
Enquirer reporter Janice Morse contributed to this article.
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