Jailer Charged With Smuggling Cellphone To Prison

More of the same. Guards succumbing to bribery to smuggle cell phones into prison. You will never end it, but it can be reduced with a secure prison cell phone solution.

A jailer at the Coastal Bend Detention Center in Robstown is facing federal charges for attempting to smuggle a cellphone to a prison gang member imprisoned for previously bribing jailers.

Richard Montgomery was released on an unsecured $20,000 bond after he was charged this week with providing or possessing contraband in prison. Unsecured bonds require no cash or collateral to be posted.

According to the criminal complaint filed in federal court, Montgomery brought a cellphone into the prison and planned to give it to an inmate to use.

The inmate, Rowdy Lopez, had only been in federal prison for a day when he asked Montgomery, an acquaintance, to get him a cellphone, the complaint says.

Lopez, a member of a prison gang, was an inmate at the Brooks County Jail when he and three others were charged in federal court with bribing two jailers.

The next day, Montgomery allegedly smuggled the cellphone into the prison but couldn’t bring it to Lopez because he was working in a different building.

Text messages recovered from the phone between Montgomery and Lopez’s brother discuss how to get the phone to the inmate.

Its unclear from the complaint whether Montgomery ever transferred the phone to Lopez. Several filings related to the case have been sealed by the judge.

An official at the Coastal Bend Detention Center could not be reached for comment.

Last year, authorities launched an unprecedented sweep across the Texas prison system for cellphones and other contraband after a death-row inmate used a smuggled cellphone to make threatening phone calls to a state senator in 2009.

Texas officials estimated that more than 800 cellphones have been confiscated inside state prisons in 2010, more than 900 in 2009 and more than 1,000 in 2008. The phones have been implicated in a number of crimes inside the prisons and outside, including homicides.

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Brian

Managing Partner at meshIP, LLC

Brian Byrne is the founder and Managing Partner of Dallas based meshIP, a technology services firm offering cloud computing strategies and services. He is an accomplished executive with senior management experience in all facets of the technology, telecom, cloud computing, and SaaS industries. He has proven success in developing, financing and executing strategic plans as well as launching new ventures. His background includes a record of significant achievement in international business development and his credentials include a MBA in Marketing and Management Strategy from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS from the School of Computer Science at DePaul University, and a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

He is also the inventor of the patented meshDETECT, Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions.

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