A former Independence County jailer has been charged with two counts of delivering prohibited articles into a correctional facility.
When Sheriff Shawn Stephens received information earlier this month that a jailer was allegedly furnishing prohibited articles into the Independence County Jail, he began an investigation with his narcotic investigator, Zach Bailey, and Dammon McGilton, a special agent with the 16th Judicial Drug Task Force.
They found that a jailer, Austin Taylor (pictured below), 21, was receiving contraband from citizens and smuggling it into the jail by using his position as a correctional officer. According to court documents, Taylor told officers he received items to smuggle inside the jail from different people. He said the items would come in a fast-food restaurant sack. The contraband included smoking tobacco and numerous cans of smokeless tobacco as well as a lighter. He said the contraband also included pills, but he didn’t know the type of pills.
Sheriff Stephens said the scheme was that Taylor would have a person show up at the jail with a fast-food sack, noting it was Uber Eats. Taylor would then take the package contents inside the bathroom, where jail cameras could not pick him up, and put the contraband on his person. He would then do a “walk-through” of the inmate pod and deliver the contraband to an inmate. Taylor would then eat the food that was inside the sack.
Taylor denied any monetary gain for doing the smuggling. In the court documents, Taylor told investigators he said was doing it out of the “kindness of his heart.” Taylor also admitted that he did not know, but some of the pills delivered to inmates could have been drugs.
Sheriff Stephens said Taylor was taken into custody and placed at another agency for security reasons while the investigation continued. Formal charges were filed Jan. 10, 2023. Taylor was placed on a $10,000 bond.
The sheriff said other arrests recently made included Tasha Lacy (pictured below), who is charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, namely meth. Sheriff Stephens noted Lacy was a probation absconder.
Stephens said another absconder, Aaron Rice, was arrested, as well as absconder Jeremy Collins, who was also charged with fleeing from officers on foot.
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