Ex-jailer sentenced in bribery conspiracy
Staff Writer kschwab@oklahoman.com
A former correctional officer apologized Monday for smuggling cellphones into an Oklahoma prison for inmates.
“I knew it was wrong,” Charles Daniel Lynn told an Oklahoma City federal judge during his sentencing. “I wasn’t in the right state of mind.”
U.S. District Judge David L. Russell asked, “What in the world were you thinking?”
Lynn told the judge he agreed at first “out of fear.”
Lynn later quit showing up to work because he wanted to stop the smuggling, he said.
The judge sentenced Lynn to 15 months in federal prison. The judge said Lynn abused his position of trust and compromised the entire prison.
Federal grand jurors indicted Lynn and two other men in August.
Lynn, 34, of El Reno, was charged with conspiracy to defraud through bribery and accepting a bribe. He pleaded guilty to both counts in November.
Lynn admitted to accepting money in exchange for smuggling cellphones, MP3 players and other contraband into the Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton in late 2016.
Lynn reportedly received about $6,500 in bribery money through wire transfers. He smuggled at least six cellphones and three MP3 players to inmates, according to his defense attorney.
Also indicted in the conspiracy were inmate Jose Tomas Castillo-Garza and the inmate’s brotherin-law, Armando Tabares. Both men also were charged with bribery of a public official.
Lynn reportedly smuggled the contraband into the prison for CastilloGarza, now 40.
Tabares, of Mission, Texas, allegedly sent Lynn multiple packages of contraband in late 2016, according to the indictment.
Lynn then escorted Castillo-Garza throughout the prison to distribute the contraband, grand jurors alleged. At the time, Castillo-Garza was serving a prison sentence for illegal re-entry into the United States after deportation.
In November, CastilloGarza pleaded guilty to the conspiracy offense. The judge sentenced him in April to two years in prison.
Tabares’ case was transferred to a federal court in Texas and is pending.
He was 30 when indicted. Lynn was employed at the facility for less than two years.
He was terminated in February 2017 after he quit showing up for work, documents show.