Former Reeves County Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribes to Smuggle Cell Phones
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 21, 2009 |
John E. Murphy, Acting United States Attorney, announced that this afternoon in Midland, 49-year old Sylvia Castillo Chairez of Pecos, Texas, a former corrections officer at the Reeves County Detention Center, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for smuggling contraband cell phones to inmates at that facility.
Chairez will face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced in approximately 90 days.
In her plea before United States Magistrate Judge B. Dwight Goains, Chairez admitted that between November 2007 and May 2008, friends and family members of inmates at the Reeves County Detention Center wire transferred a total of approximately $4,300.00 to her. In exchange, Chairez illicitly brought cell phones into the facility for inmates, all of whom were in federal custody serving time for drug and immigration offenses, to use.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with security personnel at the Reeves County Detention Center. Assistant United States Attorney John S. Klassen is prosecuting the matter for the Government.