In January, 2001, Key West The Newspaper reported that ex-corrections officer Michael Russell had been arrested and threatened after reporting allegations of drug smuggling at the jail. This week, KWTN learned that, after almost two years and $20,000 in attorney's fees, State Attorney Mark Kohl has dropped the charges against Russell.
In an interview with KWTN last month, Kohl said that his office is in the process of throwing out cases left over from the administration of Kirk Zuelch, the former State Attorney— "cases in which there is simply not enough evidence to prosecute," Kohl said.
Russell said that while working the night shift at the jail in August 1999, he was told by an inmate that he had seen other officers delivering drugs to other inmates. "I reported that information to my sergeant," Russell said, "including the names of the officers and inmates allegedly involved."
But nothing happened, he said. Except that he received a telephone threat that his car would be blown up if he went public with his allegations.
"In the days that followed, my source continued to provide more information, implicating more officers and inmates at the jail," Russell said.
Since nothing had happened as a result of his initial report, Russell said that, on his day off, he went to the local office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). "I was told that they would look into it and get back to me. They didn't."
Then Russell went to the State Attorney's Office and the FBI.
"Still, nothing happened," he said— "except, a few days later, I was told by my supervisor that I was being investigated. I was arrested a week later for allegedly `smuggling contraband into the jail'. The alleged contraband? I gave a piece of pizza to my source!"
Russell said that, after his arrest, he went to Sheriff Rick Roth and told him everything. "He said he would look into it and get back to me. That never happened— but I was fired from my job shortly after I talked to Roth."
Although the State Attorney's Office offered Russell a series of deals if he would cop a plea, he refused. "I had not done anything wrong. And I didn't want to lose my law enforcement credentials," he said.
Russell said that his original attorney, Ed Horan, was pushing him to plea. And when Russell continued to refuse, Horan resigned as his lawyer, reportedly accusing Russell of wanting to embarrass the Sheriff.
"But he didn't return the money I had paid him," Russell said.
"I finally retained Attorney Alan Eckstein— and he got the charges dropped and the arrest expunged from my record."