Former Taft Federal Correctional Institution Employee Sentenced After Accepting Bribes
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 16, 2012 |
FRESNO, CA—Andrew Lucas, of Bakersfield, was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison by Chief United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii for accepting a bribe while a public official, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.
According to court documents, from July through October 2010, as an electrician at the Taft Federal Correctional Institution, Lucas accepted bribes totaling between five and ten thousand dollars for smuggling cellular telephones and related equipment and diet supplements for the inmates.
At sentencing, Judge Ishii noted the potential danger that Lucas’s conduct presented to the staff at the Taft Correctional Institution and the public at large.
This case was the product of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Taft Federal Correctional Institution investigative staff. Assistant United States Attorney Kevin Rooney prosecuted the case.