An investigation into March incidents resulted in the female Butler Tech student in the criminal justice program being charged with two felony counts of illegal conveyance into a detention facility, a misdemeanor charge of the same crime, and misdemeanor obstructing official business, according to court documents.
The intern, who turned 18 in June, was accused of bringing marijuana, ecstasy and cellphones into the facility on two occasions for two federal prisoners, documents said. She was also accused of being less than truthful to investigators during the investigation that led to a lockdown of the inmate pod.
According to juvenile court records, the felony charges against the teen were dismissed by the prosecutors in July and a one-day bench trial in the misdemeanor before county juvenile court Judge Dan Phillips was held Friday.
Phillips issued a ruling stating the teen was not adjudicated or was found not guilty and the case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning charges can not be filed again in court.
“They were alleging she brought illegal items into the jail,” said the teen’s attorney Joe Auciello. “Not only was it not proven, there was no evidence of any of it. That’s why we went to trial.”
Auciello said the inmates were preying on her to bring items in and she refused.
“And to be quite frank, her naivety regarding the whole situation ... at one point one of these inmates asked her to bring in Newports and she had to Google what Newports were,” Auchiello said.
The attorney said his client was a 17-year-old female in a high security pod, “I understand they do an internship program with Butler Tech to facilitate career in law enforcement and I can appreciate that, but I don’t know that putting this 17-year-old juvenile in a high security pod was the best choice. There are other parts of the jail that she maybe could have been a part of that maybe wasn’t so high security or where she would have had a little bit better oversight.”
There were reports that the teen allegedly had sexual contact with an inmate while she was unsupervised. Auciello adamantly denies that allegation and said “again there was no evidence of any of that.”
Butler County Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer said in June the inmates were not charged with breaking any jail rules or crimes for the contraband she allegedly brought in because a search of cell and pod did not turn up anything on the day the investigation began.
The intern was one of about half a dozen from Butler Tech to go through the program as an unpaid intern. Dwyer noted in June that the BCSO recently hired an 18-year-old graduate as a corrections officer.
Dwyer said the intern was never alone in the jail pod, which is less than the size of a basketball court.
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said the felony charges were dropped because all the prosecution had was the intern’s statements and there was a failure of proof beyond her statements.
“I could confess to killing Ronald McDonald, but there has to be some collateral evidence to be associated with the charge for proof. In this case I did not have that.
Prosecutors proceeded with the misdemeanors and there was not enough evidence for conviction, “according to the judge,” Gmoser said.
Dwyer said the department brought the charges based on the circumstances.
“Unfortunately, there’s times that concrete evidence, especially when you are dealing with the jail and something being smuggled in, those items are moved (by inmates) very quickly. We did not recover anything ... inmates are pretty savvy,” Dwyer said. “In a court case that can be problematic.”
He said the sheriff’s office is still evaluating reinstating the intern program, noting other places have has similar programs that have been successful.
“I am not saying that we or are not, the final decision has not been made at this time,” Dwyer said.
A.J. Huff, Butler Tech spokeswoman, said Monday “at this time the program is still suspended.”
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