Three corrections officers charged with lying about finding a shank in an inmate’s locker
Three state corrections officers were charged with lying about finding a weapon inside an inmate’s locker, which could have led to a loss of privileges or a transfer of the man they set up, prosecutors said Thursday.
Capt. Eric Peavey Jr., Sgt. Lizandro Rodriguez and Officer Ellen Day were all charged with single counts of official misconduct and falsifying records, both third-degree felonies.
“By falsely charging inmate [Lazaro] Galvan with possession of a weapon, the charged correctional officers knew, or had reason to know, that Galvan was subjected to segregation from the general population of Dade CI [Correctional Institution], a loss of visitation and a loss of privileges available to other inmates,” the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said in a written statement.
According to prosecutors, in December 2017 Rodriguez penned a disciplinary report on Galvan that stated a “shank” was found inside the inmate’s locker. The report said that another officer named Toddra Blake found the improvised weapon that day while inspecting Galvan’s property as he was being transferred to another part of the Dade Correctional Institute.
Yet for some reason, prosecutors say, a picture of the shank along with the disciplinary report were emailed between the charged officers — an aberration to normal procedure, according to investigators. Generally an officer writes out a disciplinary report by hand and passes it along to a captain for review.
Then, when Galvan denied having a weapon, Blake told investigators that not only did she not do inventory that day, but she knew nothing about a shank. She also said she didn’t author the disciplinary report, according to prosecutors.
After interviewing additional witnesses and viewing surveillance footage, investigators concluded that Galvan’s version of the day’s events was authentic, prosecutors said.
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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.