Deputies investigated for sneaking in drugs

The drug use in the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center was obvious.

Inmates were overdosing. Deputies were confiscating narcotics and hearing from anonymous sources that some of their own were playing a part in getting the drugs in, records say.

An investigation by the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office Gang Unit that began in the fall of 2020 found three corrections deputies who worked at the Main Detention Center were meeting up with inmates’ relatives or friends for deals, sneaking the drugs in and being paid hundreds each time, court records say.

Deputies Karl Kirkland, 58; Samuel Pierre, 30; and Jose Gutierrez, 37, were arrested in April 2021, each accused of bringing contraband into the jail. While Kirkland and Pierre’s criminal cases and law enforcement careers have since come to an end, the outcome for Gutierrez is still undetermined.

Gutierrez was placed on administrative leave with pay on April 1, 2021, then administrative leave without pay on April 26, 2021.

He will remain on leave without pay until his court case is resolved, Teri Barbera, a Sheriff ’s Office spokesperson said in an email. Then the Internal Affairs investigation will resume.

The Internal Affairs investigations of Kirkland and Pierre officially closed in February, and both have given up their law enforcement certifications and the possibility of reinstatement, according to records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

‘Giving and trusting person’

Sheriff ’s detectives listened in on jail system phone calls and found inmates referred to Kirkland, Pierre and Gutierrez and different drugs by code names.

The drugs were sneaked into the jail inside of takeout food boxes on multiple occasions, according to court records and Internal Affairs documents.

Inmates in some of the calls covertly referred to Kirkland by saying “Costco brand” in the phone calls, an Internal Affairs report said.

In March 2021, a few weeks before Kirkland’s arrest, an inmate arranged for another inmate’s relative to pick up “a sandwich, a bowl and some wings” from Domino’s Pizza, which were delivered to the jail on Gun Club Road in Kirkland’s name. The inmate said there needed to be “3 bucks or 3 bills” in the sandwich for the “green lives matter people,” meaning $300 for Kirkland hidden in it, a probable cause affidavit said.

The jail’s surveillance cameras showed the relative arrive with three small Domino’s Pizza boxes that Kirkland eventually took in his lunch bag, the affidavit said.

The inmate said in a separate monitored call in April that Kirkland would be easy to spot for the person who was supposed to meet with him for the deal because Kirkland would be wearing a “Halloween costume,” meaning his Sheriff ’s Office uniform, Internal Affairs documents said.

Kirkland met with a woman for the deal at a McDonald’s. He stopped at a gas station afterward, and investigators found that Kirkland tossed a bag with cigarettes and 23 grams of methamphetamine in the trash can, the Internal Affairs report said. He was arrested that day.

The woman who met with Kirkland said she gave him $900, albeit reluctantly because he was in uniform and she did not know she was meeting with a deputy, the Internal Affairs report said.

In an interview with the Violent Crimes Division, Kirkland said he didn’t want the incident to be a “blemish” in his career and said he “was a very giving and trusting person, which is what put him in the situation he was in,” the Internal Affairs report said. He asked for an attorney and said nothing more.

Kirkland was arrested on felony charges of armed trafficking charges. He entered a plea agreement in September 2022 on two lesser counts of introducing contraband into a county detention facility, the Internal Affairs report and court records said.

Kirkland was required to relinquish his criminal justice certification and sentenced to time served — 16 days in jail — and two years of probation; ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and show proof of being employed; and pay court costs, court records show.

Florida Division of Law Enforcement records show Kirkland submitted an affidavit relinquishing his certification in October.

Defense attorney Gregg Lerman said Kirkland has since started a business and said his client was “overcharged” with the initial trafficking charges.

“There was no evidence that he ever brought drugs into the jail as far as I’m concerned,” Lerman said. “He pled guilty to misdemeanors as much out of convenience as anything else since it’s not worth the risk of going to trial.

“He made some mistakes … but nothing as serious as he was ever accused of.”

007

Inmates often referred to Pierre in their phone calls as “my girl,” “my home boy,” “007,” “Wally” and other code names, Internal Affairs documents said. The Florida Department of Corrections documented incidents of overdoses in the dorms where Pierre worked.

Inmates paid relatives and friends outside of the jail through the mobile payment app CashApp, which they then used to pay the deputy meeting with them in cash. Pierre usually brought the contraband in on the last day of his work week or called in sick after bringing them in. He pocketed between $200 and $1,500 each time, the Internal Affairs report said.

An inmate who Pierre later admitted to working with was found on multiple dates to have packages of marijuana hidden inside himself, according to the Internal Affairs report. Pierre admitted he hid the marijuana in his shirt.

Pierre entered a pre-trial intervention agreement last October that required him to relinquish his criminal justice certification and to pay court costs, the Internal Affairs report said. He submitted a letter of resignation to the Sheriff ’s Office the day he entered the agreement.

FDLE records show Pierre submitted an affidavit relinquishing his certification in March 2022.

The attorney who represented him did not return a voicemail seeking comment this week.

Marijuana in sandwich

Gutierrez was involved in a deal in March 2021 similarly disguised with takeout food boxes. The inmate arranged to get 2 grams of “speakers,” which is slang for a high-grade marijuana, for $250 a bag, a probable cause affidavit said.

The same inmate who arranged for the deal a few days earlier that involved Kirkland told his sister to pick up a sub like “the first one we ever did with the letter, the name,”

the affidavit said, and told her to count to the seventh letter of the alphabet — G for Gutierrez.

Those calls were being monitored in real time, and detectives watched a man hand off boxes of pasta, chicken wings and a sandwich at the jail’s lobby before speeding off in a car, the affidavit said. Detectives found two black plastic bags of marijuana hidden in a sandwich in one of the boxes and another bag of marijuana, cigarettes and a lighter underneath the pasta dish.

Gutierrez is charged with conspiracy to introduce contraband into a county detention facility, introducing contraband into a county detention facility and possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana, court records show. His case is pending.

The attorney representing Gutierrez did not return a voicemail seeking comment this week.

An FDLE spokesperson said in an email Wednesday that the agency did not have any information to provide about Gutierrez’s case.

WILFREDO LEE/AP 2021 Three deputies at the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center were investigated in 2020 for making drug deals. In 2021 they were formally accused of bringing contraband into the jail.