Former Corrections Officer Sentenced to 37 Months in Prison on Federal Bribery Charge
Admitted Taking Money in Return for Smuggling Drugs into D.C. Jail

WASHINGTON—Jonathan Womble, 37, a former corrections officer at the District of Columbia Jail, was sentenced on October 9, 2013, to 37 months in prison on a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bribery for accepting $400 in cash in return for smuggling drugs and other contraband into the facility, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen, Jr. and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Womble pled guilty in June 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Reggie B. Walton. Upon completion of his prison term, Womble will be placed on three years of supervised release.

According to the government’s evidence, the FBI received information in January 2013 that a corrections officer was providing narcotics and other contraband to an inmate at the D.C. Jail. An investigation revealed that the inmate was working with co-conspirators outside the jail to assemble, deliver, receive, and distribute narcotics intended for inmates at the jail and that they were paying an individual to get the drugs into the facility.

On January 27, 2013, Womble met with one of the co-conspirators in the parking lot of a carry-out restaurant in the District of Columbia. The co-conspirator gave Womble a plastic bag, which contained a powdery substance consistent with heroin and marijuana. The bag also contained a cellphone, cellphone charger, and $400 in cash. Womble understood that the cash was in exchange for him getting the drugs, cell phone, and charger to the inmate in the jail. Two days later, he smuggled the items into the jail and provided them to the inmate.

Plans were subsequently made for another delivery of contraband. However, on February 12, 2013, multiple bags of marijuana were discovered and intercepted inside Womble’s locker at the jail by the District of Columbia Department of Corrections and one of its K9s. The marijuana had been provided to Womble by a person who wanted it delivered to another inmate.

Womble is among four corrections employees convicted of bribery since December 2012.

In December 2012, Daishawn Goodson, a former corrections officer employed by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), pled guilty to taking money to smuggle contraband into the District’s Correctional Treatment Facility. She was sentenced to eight months of home detention. In March 2013, Jeremiah Moorman, a former corrections officer, was found guilty of accepting money under the promise of bringing contraband into the District of Columbia Jail. He was sentenced to two years of probation. Also in March 2013, April Johnston, a former corrections officer for the District of Columbia Jail, pled guilty to taking money to smuggle contraband into the facility. She was sentenced to three months in jail and six months of home detention and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen and Assistant Director in Charge Parlave commended the work of the three agencies who jointly worked the case, including agents from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, an FBI task force officer from Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and investigators from the District of Columbia Department of Corrections Office of Investigative Services and the Department of Corrections K9 Unit. Finally, they commended the efforts of those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Paralegal Specialist Lenisse Edloe, Legal Assistant Angela Lawrence, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard E. DiZinno and Christopher R. Kavanaugh, who prosecuted the case.