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Alachua County Jail
Gainesville, Florida
First Correctional Medical
January 13, 2005 WCJB TV20
An Alachua County inmate was still warm to the touch Wednesday when Alachua County Sheriff's deputies found him dead in his cell. Investigators say it was an apparent suicide raising questions about mental health care at the jail.

American Corrective Counseling Services
November 2, 2007 Public Citizen
In a ruling that could have widespread implications for the accountability of private government contractors, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled Thursday that a private, for-profit debt collector that operates as a contractor for local prosecutors cannot claim sovereign immunity from lawsuits. The company, American Corrective Counseling Services, Inc. (ACCS), is a so-called “check diversion” company, meaning that it uses its contract with local prosecutors to threaten consumers who have written bad checks with criminal prosecution or jail unless they pay the company exorbitant collection fees. The company then gives the prosecutors a share of the profits. In the suit, Rosario v. ACCS, Florida consumers claimed that ACCS’s threats of prosecution violated their rights under state and federal consumer protection laws. In November 2006, a federal district court ruled that ACCS had the same sovereign immunity as does the state, because ACCS is a state contractor. Public Citizen represents the Florida consumer plaintiffs. The appellate court on Thursday disagreed with the district court, concluding that giving the private company sovereign immunity would contradict precedent and create an extensive new immunity defense for private government contractors in all sectors. The court noted that attorneys in prosecutors’ offices do not review the cases before ACCS threatens consumers with prosecution, and that the prosecutors exercise virtually no control over ACCS. Sovereign immunity, the court said, “has never been held to apply simply because an independent contractor performs some government function.” “This decision has broad implications for government-employed contractors of all stripes,” said Deepak Gupta, the Public Citizen attorney who argued the case. “From debt collectors and private prisons to Blackwater in Iraq, the court made clear that private contractors will remain responsible for their actions and can’t hide behind the cloak of sovereign immunity.” The case will now go back to the district level so the court can decide the merits of the suit.

Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp
Liberty County, Florida
Twin Oaks Juvenile Development, Inc
March 14, 2007 AP
Four state agencies are looking into reports of abuse at a Department of Children & Families contracted facility that holds mentally ill and disabled juvenile delinquents who aren't competent to stand trial. It's believed an employee used excess force Feb. 28 while grabbing a child and transferring him to a "time out" room, but he was not severely injured, said Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Andrew Agwunobi. Another boy's arm was broken during a conflict with employees March 6 at the Liberty County facility managed by Twin Oaks Juvenile Development, Inc., said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey. Both boys are 14 years old, said Department of Children & Families Secretary Bob Butterworth. The first boy is from Broward County and the boy who broke his arm is from Indian River County. Phillpe Davidson was fired after the first event and Anthony Vowell and John Davis were placed on leave after the second, according to DCF. The Apalachicola Forest Youth Camp was almost shut down after the Agency for Health Care Administration, which licenses the facility, reviewed the cases. The agency agreed to keep it open after DCF assigned staff to monitor the facility 24 hours each day, Agwunobi said.

Avon Park Youth Academy
Polk County, Florida
Securicor New Century
March 2, 2001 AP
Two teenage boys escaped from the Avon Park Youth Academy early Thursday morning, but were captured when they became disoriented while sailing a skiff on Lake Butler and landed on a shore where authorities just happened to be looking for them. Polk county sheriff's spokeswoman Michael Shanley said the pair walked away from the facility around 4:30 a.m. and climbed a fence to get to freedom. The academy, a Florida department of Juvenile Justice program operated by a private juvenile corrections firm, has 212 beds and houses moderate-risk male offenders ages 16-18.

Bartow Boot Camp
Bartow, Florida
EMSA Correctional Care Inc.
July 16, 2003 The Ledger
The three teens who escaped from the Bartow Youth Training Center on Thursday afternoon were caught about 12 hours later five miles away, the Polk County Sheriff's Office reported Friday.  Terry Walker, 14, of Apopka, Gerald Rouse, 14, of Clearwater, and Anthony Schwebel, 17, of Titusville, were caught about 12 a.m. Friday on Snell and Alturas Babson Park Cutoff roads, said Michal Shanley, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office.  The teens had been on the run since about 12:40 p.m. Thursday, when they climbed over a fence and then ran into woods that surround the facility.  The Sheriff's Office called off the search about 5 p.m. But a resident called to report seeing the teens late Thursday, and the search resumed.  Deputies used a helicopter and dogs to search through the area's citrus groves.  All three teens were taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center, where minors are taken when arrested.  Shanley said Walker, Rouse and Schwebel each face a felony escape charge.  The Bartow Youth Training Center is on 240 acres just east of Homeland on Homeland-Garfield Road.  The residential, 50-bed facility houses high-risk and serious habitual offender juveniles.  It was not known why or for how long the teens were at the detention facility.  In February, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice awarded a contract to Ramsay Youth Services Inc. to operate the center.  The three-year contract is expected to generate more than $2 million in annual revenue, the company said. 

October 8, 2001 Tallahassee Democrat
By all accounts, Chad Franza was a troubled boy, but he didn't deserve to die the way he did.  The 16-year-old, confined to a juvenile boot camp in Bartow for a series of run-ins with the law, hanged himself with his boot laces.  Just 24 days after he entered the boot camp, Chad decided he could no longer endure the isolation from his family and the tough conditions.  His suicide more than three years ago still haunts his parents, Joseph and Mylinda Franza of Avon Park.  "It was the worst day of my life," his father said.  Hours before Chad took his life, his parents stopped at the boot camp to see their son. "They wouldn't let us," Joseph Franza said.  Chad's parents have sued the state Department of Juvenile Justice, Polk County Sheriff Lawrence Crow and EMSA Correctional Care Inc., which had a contract to provide physical and mental health care services for the boot camp. 

Bay County Correctional Facility
Panama City, Florida
CCA
February 2, 2007 AP
Private prisons operating under lease-purchase agreements with the state will remain exempt from paying millions of dollars in local property taxes after the Florida Supreme Court reversed course Thursday and let stand an appellate decision. The justices earlier had agreed to consider an appeal by Bay County, but wrote in a unanimous, three-sentence opinion that they had changed their minds “because the circumstances of this case are fact-specific.” “What does that mean?” Bay County Property Appraiser Rick Barnett asked after consulting with his lawyer. “We can’t figure that out.” One thing it will mean is that Bay County cannot collect $2.27 million in taxes dating back to 1996. Officials had sought the money from Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville-Tenn., which runs the Bay County Correctional Facility under a contract with the state. The case was being closely watched by officials in other jurisdictions with private state prisons. CCA also operates correctional facilities in Lake City and Quincy. Another company, GEO Group of Boca Raton, runs the Moore Haven and Southbay correctional facilities and has a contract for a new one at Graceville. “Why would they not have to pay and all the other private corporations do?” Barnett asked. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal unanimously answered that question last year by ruling lease-purchase prison property is exempt from taxes because “the state is the equitable owner.” The appellate judges, though, agreed to certify the issue to the Supreme Court as a question of great public importance, but the justices now have declined to accept the case. Barnett and Bay County Tax Collector Peggy Brannon had sued the Department of Management Services, which inherited private prison contracts from the now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission. “The Department is encouraged by the Supreme Court’s apparent action,” Department Secretary Linda South said in a statement. “We have always maintained that state’s prison properties, like all other state property, are immune from ad valorem taxation.” In a related case, the Supreme Court in November reinstated a suit by the department seeking to overturn the auctioning of the Lake City Correctional Facility for failure to pay property taxes in Columbia County. A trial judge had upheld the tax deed sale because the state missed a filing deadline, but the Supreme Court reversed. The justices ruled the state is exempt from a law that requires “taxpayers” to challenge assessments within 60 days after they are certified. A couple and their two daughters had paid $132,313 for a tax deed to the multi-million-dollar prison.

November 1, 2006 AP
Prosecutors couldn’t convince a central Kentucky jury to convict a Bay County man accused of making a hoax phone call that lasted 3½ hours and ended in a bizarre sexual assault of a teenage McDonald’s worker. The jury on Tuesday acquitted David R. Stewart, 38, of Fountain, on charges of impersonating a police officer, soliciting sodomy and soliciting sexual abuse relating to a phone call made to the Mount Washington, Ky., restaurant in which former employees testified that the caller told them to conduct a strip-search of a worker in April 2004. Steve Romines, Stewart’s lawyer, said the jury’s verdict showed the weakness of the prosecution’s case. “There are a lot of questions unanswered in this case,” he said. “The only thing I knew for sure was my client didn’t do it.”

October 31, 2006 The Courier-Journal
Bullitt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Mann implored jurors Tuesday to “follow the evidence” and convict a Florida man charged with being the mastermind behind an elaborate hoax that led to a McDonald’s worker being strip-searched and sexually humiliated. “It’s so obvious,” Mann told jurors in his closing arguments this morning. “There is more than enough evidence to find the defendant guilty.” An hour earlier, defense attorney Steve Romines said his client, David R. Stewart, was the “fall guy” for a botched police investigation. “They came to a conclusion then went about looking for facts to support it,” said Romines, who also told jurors that there was more evidence that this hoax was itself a “scam.” “There’s not even proof beyond a reasonable doubt that this is real,” he said. Stewart is accused of calling the restaurant on April 9, 2004, and directing an assistant manager to search and detain Louise Ogborn, who the caller said was accused of stealing a purse. During a 3½ ordeal after that, Ogborn was sexually abused by the manager’s then-fiancé, who later pled guilty but said he’d been acting on the orders of a caller posing as an officer. Stewart, charged with impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy, faces up to 15 years in prison on the two felony charges.

October 22, 2006 News Herald
The 19-year-old woman stripped naked in front of her boss in the manager’s room at the Winn-Dixie on 23rd Street more than three years ago because a voice on the phone said so. The teenager posed. She exposed. She did jumping jacks nude. For nearly two hours, a man who said he was a police officer orchestrated her humiliation over the phone. The voice told the girl’s boss, assistant manager James Marvin Pate, that she stole a purse. Police believe the man on the phone was David R. Stewart, of Fountain, said Sgt. Kevin Miller, of the Panama City Police Department. Authorities said Stewart, 39, made dozens of calls like this across the country for several years. The phone hoaxes sparked lawsuits against restaurant franchisees and chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and Applebee’s. Stewart’s first trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Mount Washington, Ky. In the Kentucky case, Stewart is accused of calling a McDonald’s on April 9, 2004, and posing as a police officer. Police said he told McDonald’s assistant manager Donna Summers a story similar to what the voice told the manager at the Panama City Winn-Dixie: He said a teenage female employee, Louise Ogborn, had stolen a purse and that she needed to be strip-searched. Summers and her ex-boyfriend, Walter Nix Jr., strip-searched Ogborn for about four hours, police said. Nix also had Ogborn perform sexual acts on him — all at the request of the caller. Mount Washington authorities charged Stewart with three counts of solicitation to commit sexual abuse, first degree; solicitation to commit sodomy, first degree; impersonating a police officer; and solicitation unlawful imprisonment, second degree. Incidents since the ’90s: Authorities said Stewart has peppered the country with calls dating back to the mid-1990s, mostly to chain restaurants. Usually, the man calls, identifies himself as a police officer, and says a female employee has drugs or has stolen something and must be strip-searched. In Panama City, the nightmare for a 19-year-old cashier began on July 12, 2003, at Winn-Dixie, when a fellow employee told her to report to the manager’s office, according to a PCPD incident report. According to the police report, which blacked out the name of the victim, what happened next lasted nearly two hours: Assistant manager Pate, 39, was waiting and handed her the phone. On the line was a man who said he was Officer Tim Peterson with the Panama City Police Department. The voice said she stole a purse and gave her two choices: Either strip naked in front of Pate or be brought down to the jail, where she’d be strip-searched in front of a lot more people. The voice also said Pate had the authority to keep her there and strip-search her, while the voice verified everything over the phone. The cashier agreed. Pate told her what to take off, and she complied out of fear of being taken to jail. She placed each item of clothing in a plastic bag. Pate described the cashier’s naked body in intimate detail to the voice on the phone, according to the police report. The voice commanded the cashier to pose in various positions that exposed her breasts, anal and vaginal areas to Pate. Toward the end of the woman’s ordeal, grocery manager Thomas Moton, 49, entered the office looking for a a key to unload a truck at the store’s rear dock. When he entered, the cashier was doing jumping jacks, and Pate had the receiver to his ear. “Pate said the boss is on the phone,” Moton said. “I thought the store manager was on the phone.” Moton said he thought something wasn’t right. He wanted to get the other assistant manager, but Pate said the voice on the phone told him to stay. The cashier went through several poses, Moton said. “She was bending over, sitting in a chair and doing jumping jacks,” he said. When the woman finally was allowed to leave, she put her clothes on and rushed out the door. Moton mentioned to Pate that “if this ain’t what it’s supposed to be, then you are out of here.” A short time later, police tore into the parking lot and hauled off Pate in handcuffs. Police charged Pate with lewd and lascivious behavior and false imprisonment. The charges eventually were dropped, Miller said. Moton said he never saw the cashier again after that night. “I didn’t even want to look her in face,” he said. “It was so embarrassing.” Police track the caller: The caller contacted several Wendy’s restaurants on Feb. 20, 2004, in the West Bridgewater, Mass., area, said Detective Sgt. Victor Flaherty of the West Bridgewater Police Department. West Bridge water is a suburb of Boston. “We had four incidents in one night,” Flaherty said. “Some conversations lasted more than an hour and a half.” Like the others, calls involved strip-searches of female employees, Flaherty said. By this time, however, the trail was leading back to Stewart, authorities said. After a story appeared in a restaurant industry magazine about what happened in West Bridgewater, Flaherty was flooded with calls from police agencies across the country. Detective Buddy Stump of the Mount Washington Police Department called Flaherty. Stump was looking for help tracing the call to the McDonald’s where Ogborn was strip-searched. Flaherty traced the calls made to West Bridgewater back to the Panama City area. He called the Panama City Police Department and asked for help, Miller said. Andrea McKenzie, a former detective with the PCPD and now an investigator with the state attorney’s office, helped link Stewart to the calls. McKenzie said she fielded calls from police agencies all over the country. “It was kind of shocking,” she said. “People said the phone number was coming from the Panama City area.” When the investigation uncovered that some of the calls were made using a phone card, authorities got the break they needed. “Nothing in this world is untraceable, if you put the time into it,” Flaherty said. McKenzie tracked the date and time of when the phone cards were bought to the Wal-Mart on 23rd Street. She pulled security video. On the video was a man wearing a uniform from the local jail run by Corrections Corporation of America, McKenzie said. Stewart was identified as the jail guard shown on the video, authorities said, and police brought him to the PCPD to be interrogated by Flaherty, who flew in from Massachusetts. When police arrested Stewart, they found numerous police magazines and applications to police departments, Miller said. “This guy wanted to be a cop in the worst way,” Flaherty said. Stewart’s attorney, Steve Romines, said there is no way his client could have been the voice on the phone. “To talk someone into this — it is someone more eloquent than David (Stewart),” Romines said. “He’s not dumb, but this was very sophisticated.” Flaherty disagreed with Romines’ assessment. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and there is no doubt in my mind” that Stewart did it, Flaherty said. Authorities eventually extradited Stewart in the fall 2004 from Bay County to Mount Washington to stand trial. Panama City police didn’t go after Stewart because they couldn’t link him to the call to the Winn-Dixie, Miller said. Other states, meanwhile, are awaiting the outcome of the Kentucky trial before pursuing legal action against Stewart, Flaherty said. “Oregon is still interested in him,” Flaherty said. “In Massachusetts, I consider it a rape by him.”

August 25, 2006 The Courier-Journal
Nearly half of Bullitt County residents think that David Stewart is guilty of masterminding the telephone hoax at the Mount Washington McDonald’s in which a teenage employee was strip-searched and sexually humiliated in April 2004, according to survey conducted to support Stewart’s motion to move his trial. But Bullitt Circuit Judge Thomas Waller indicated Friday he will deny the motion and try to empanel an impartial jury on Oct. 24, when the case is set for trial. Stewart is charged with impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy for allegedly calling the restaurant and pretending to be a police officer investigating a theft. As a result of the call, employee Louise Ogborn, then 18, was forced to take off her clothes and sodomize a man that Stewart allegedly asked to watch her. Stewart’s lawyer, Steve Romines, asked for a change of venue, citing numerous newspaper and TV stories that have mentioned Stewart is suspected of making calls to as many as 70 other restaurants and stores in 30 states. He hasn’t been charged in any of those incidents, and Romines said evidence concerning them would be inadmissible at Stewart’s trial. Stewart, a former corrections officer at a private prison near Panama City, Fla., attended a hearing before Waller yesterday but did not speak in court. Romines declined to let him answer questions from reporters.

June 17, 2006 AP
Detective Buddy Stump couldn't believe the story being told. A teenage worker at the local McDonald's had been strip-searched and sexually assaulted by co-workers. The co-workers said a policeman called the restaurant, described the girl and directed them about what to do. "I'm thinking, 'They told you to do what?'" said Stump, one of 16 police officers in Mount Washington and the department's only detective. The investigation that grew from that night would lead to a plea by a former employee of McDonald's, and the arrest of a Florida man on charges of impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy. The trial of David R. Stewart, 38, of Florida, was previously scheduled to begin this week but has been postponed to Sept. 5. In handwritten court filings, Stewart denies being the hoax caller. He is free on $50,000 cash bond. Mailings to the Bullitt Circuit Court indicate he is still living in Florida. "I had nothing to do with any of this," Stewart said. "I did not do this." A judge has ordered the attorneys involved in the case not to discuss it publicly before the trial. Stump and other investigators in states from Maine to Wyoming to Arizona say they believe their investigation stopped a cruel and bizarre series of hoaxes. Private investigator R.A. Dawson of Rapid City, S.D., who investigated a similar incident, said he had found 70 other cases resembling the one in Kentucky. "The M-O's were all similar," Dawson said. "And, they seemed to get increasingly worse." In court filings, McDonald's has denied any wrongdoing, but has declined to comment on the case, citing a pending civil case.

February 22, 2006 Courier-Journal
The assistant manager who led the April 2004 strip-search of a teenager at a Bullitt County McDonald's received probation yesterday after the victim said she thought the manager was duped and was herself a victim. Over the prosecutor's objection, Donna Jean Summers was placed on one year's probation by Bullitt District Court Judge Rebecca Ward. The county attorney's office had asked that Summers be jailed for a year. Summers entered an Alford plea to misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment, meaning she maintained her innocence while acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict her. Ward said a jury, which was scheduled to hear the case today, probably would have convicted Summers and recommended that she be incarcerated. But the judge said she accepted victim Louise Ogborn's recommendation for leniency to spare Ogborn from testifying, saying "she's already gone though a lot." Summers detained Ogborn, then 18, and took away her clothes after a man pretending to be a police officer called the Mount Washington fast-food restaurant and said an employee resembling Ogborn had taken a customer's purse. Despite the disposition, Summers left the courthouse in tears, saying she still holds McDonald's responsible for failing to warn employees of strip-search hoaxes at its other restaurants. She has said she never would have detained Ogborn had she known of previous hoaxes. Ward said she was imposing probation in part because Ogborn still must testify against the man charged with making the phone call, David N. Stewart, a former private prison guard from Fountain, Fla. Stewart is scheduled to be tried April 18 in Bullitt County on charges of impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy. Law-enforcement officials have said they suspect Stewart was behind at least 69 other hoaxes at businesses in 32 states from 1995 through 2004. He has been charged only in Bullitt County and has pleaded not guilty. Ogborn was detained for nearly four hours and was slapped on the buttocks, humiliated and forced to sodomize Summers' then-fiancé, Walter Nix Jr. Nix pleaded guilty Feb. 2 to sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment and agreed to a five-year prison sentence. Summers called off their engagement after she reviewed a store surveillance video showing what Nix did to Ogborn. Nix also said he was following the orders of a man he thought was a police officer.

February 4, 2006 Oregonian
A former fast-food worker is suing the owners of a Gresham Burger King franchise because she claims her supervisor ordered her to undress after accusing her of theft two years ago. The supervisor told police he was following the instructions of a caller who claimed he was a police officer investigating theft. In fact, the caller is suspected of pulling a similar scam on dozens of workers at restaurants and other stores across the country for a decade. Last year, police arrested David R. Stewart, a former private corrections officer from Florida. Stewart faces charges in Kentucky, although he is suspected of making calls around the country, according to an article in the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. Officer Grant McCormick, spokesman for the Gresham Police Department, said there was no active investigation since the arrest. The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, describes a typical version of the scam: The plaintiff, who was a minor, finished her shift at the Burger King at 990 N.W. Eastman Parkway about 8:45 p.m. in February 2004. She was with her mother in the parking lot when the manager approached and told her to return to the restaurant. The manager told the girl's mother to wait outside. Then he brought the plaintiff into his office where he accused her of stealing $50 from a customer and said a police officer was on the phone and needed to speak with her. The plaintiff "spoke with the caller . . . and then was instructed to hand the phone back to (the manager, who) then instructed (the plaintiff) to begin disrobing and gave her a bag in which to place her clothing. The caller instructed (the plaintiff) to remove all her clothing, including her bra and panties, and she complied while (the manager) stood by. After she was completely undressed and all her clothes were in the bag, (the manager) again spoke with the caller and described how (the plaintiff) was sitting and further advised the caller that her legs were closed. The caller instructed (the plaintiff) to open her legs so that (the manager) could see between them, but (the plaintiff) refused to do this," according to the suit. After 45 minutes, the plaintiff's mother came in and told her daughter to get dressed and leave.

February 2, 2006 Courier-Journal
The Bullitt County man who claimed he thought he was following a police officer’s orders when he sexually humiliated a teenaged McDonald’s worker in April 2004 pleaded guilty this morning to sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment. A charge of sodomy, which could have sent Walter W. Nix Jr., to prison for 20 years, was dropped as part of a plea bargain to which he agreed to a five-year prison term. Nix, who will be formally sentenced on March 15, agreed not to seek probation at sentencing, and Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Mann agreed to take no position on shock probation, which could be granted later. Nix is the first person to be convicted in the 2004 hoax at the Mount Washington McDonald’s in which Louise Ogborn, a $6.35 hour counter worker, was strip-searched and sexually humiliated for nearly four hours after a man pretending to be a police officer called the store and said he was investigating the theft of a purse from a customer. Nix, 43, was scheduled to be tried today before Bullitt Circuit Judge Tom Waller. The judge asked Ogborn if she supported the plea bargain and if so why. She said she did because it will require Nix to serve time in prison, to register as a sex offender and to testify against David N. Stewart, the alleged perpetrator of the hoax. Stewart, a former private prison guard from Fountain, Fla., is scheduled to be tried April 18 on charges of impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy for allegedly making the hoax call. Law enforcement officials have said they suspect Stewart was behind at least 69 other hoaxes at businesses in 32 states from 1995 through 2004. He has been charged only in Bullitt County, and has pleaded not guilty.

December 7, 2005 Courier-Journal
The trials of the three people charged in connection with the sexual humiliation of a teenage McDonald's employee in Bullitt County during a hoax last year have been postponed: David N. Stewart, 38, of Fountain, Fla., who was scheduled to stand trial Dec. 13 in Bullitt Circuit Court on charges of impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy, now will be tried on April 18. Walter W. Nix, 43, who also was scheduled for trial Dec. 13 on charges of sodomy and assault, has been rescheduled for trial Feb. 1. Donna Jean Summers, 51, who is charged with unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, and was to be tried today, is set for trial Feb. 22. All three have pleaded not guilty. Stewart is accused of calling the Mount Washington restaurant on April 9, 2004, and, while pretending to be a police officer investigating a theft, inducing Summers, a McDonald's assistant manager, to strip-search Louise Ogborn, then 18. Summers later called Nix, her fiance at the time, to the store to watch Ogborn. Nix has admitted in court that he forced Ogborn to sodomize him and engage in humiliating exercises, but he has said he was following the orders of the caller, who he thought was a police officer. Summers, who was fired, also has said that she was following orders, and that McDonald's is at fault for having failed to alert employees about similar hoaxes at stores. Stewart, a former private prison guard, is suspected by law enforcement officers of pulling similar hoaxes at 69 other businesses from 1995 through last year, but so far he has been charged only in Bullitt County.

November 17, 2005 In-Forum News
The suspected mastermind behind strip searches of employees at chain restaurants and stores nationwide - including one at a north Fargo Burger King - faces felony charges in Kentucky for a hoax there. Authorities arrested David Richard Stewart of Panama City, Fla., after tracking a call from a Wal-Mart to Kentucky, where an18-year-old McDonald's employee was sexually abused last year when an assistant manager followed directions from a caller. Court papers state Stewart, 38, posed as "Officer Scott" when calling the McDonald's in Mount Washington. He convinced the assistant manager to strip-search the woman, who Scott said was suspected of stealing. The call resembles one made to the Fargo Burger King on 19th Avenue North in January 1999. The caller, posing as "Lieutenant Scott," convinced then-night manager Jason Allan Krein to strip-search a 17-year-old female employee in his office. Krein later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and served 30 days in jail. In Kentucky, the assistant manager and her boyfriend also face charges for the McDonald's strip search. The assistant manager faces an unlawful imprisonment charge while her boyfriend faces sexual abuse and sodomy crimes. Authorities charged Stewart with impersonating a police officer and soliciting each of the other crimes. The suspects all pleaded not guilty and face trials next month. "It was a horrible, horrible ordeal that this young lady had to go through," said Walt Sholar, the Bullitt County, Ky., attorney handling one of the cases. Nationwide, Sholar said there are about 70 cases similar to the ones in Kentucky and Fargo. Dozens of police departments have contacted Mount Washington authorities convinced they arrested their suspect. "I have no doubt in my mind that he's been the one behind all of them," Mount Washington Police Detective Buddy Stump said. "For the sake of the rest of the country, I hope and pray that it is." Stump broke the case open after the city told him to find the caller. "We realized how many people have been affected across the United States," he said. "I thought it was my duty." With help from detectives in Massachusetts and Florida, Stump zeroed in on a surveillance video at one of Panama City's three Wal-Marts. Once they had the guy's image, they tracked Stewart to a private prison company where he worked. Stewart remains free on bond until his trial. Calls to a phone listing for David Stewart in Panama City went unanswered. In January 1999, a man called six Fargo businesses- two Burger Kings, three Taco Bells and Payless Shoe Store - in an attempt to convince managers to strip-search female employees. At the north Fargo Burger King, Krein went along with the caller's demands, undressing the employee and touching her legs to describe them to the caller. At Krein's court hearing, East Central District Judge Georgia Dawson said "it's just not conceivable" for Krein to think the search was proper. Fargo attorney Adam Hamm, a prosecutor then, told Dawson the girl was traumatized for months. "Of all the cases I prosecuted, this was one of the cases that burned itself into my memory," Hamm said. "I have always wondered if I made the right decision in charging Jason Krein with the charge." Hamm said he prepared a more serious charge against Krein but balked at filing it because of how state law defines sexual contact. "I knew I could prove the misdemeanor and at some level he had to be held responsible," Hamm said. After the Fargo strip search, the girl and her parents sued Burger King, owned by RED Inc. in Grand Forks, N.D. The case was settled in mediation, according to those familiar with the case. Details of the settlement are not public. Krein moved to Wisconsin and could not be reached for comment. Fargo Lt. Tod Dahle recalls the Burger King search because police tracked one call to a Florida pay phone and the caller posed as a Fargo officer. After the incident, Fargo police received reports of similar incidents in Grand Forks, Devils Lake, N.D., Watertown, S.D., and Virginia and Wisconsin. "Ever since that happened, I probably got a call about that case every three months," he said. "Of course, I'd learn it happened somewhere else." With Stewart's arrest, Dahle said Fargo police will ask prosecutors to review the case to determine if charges can be filed against Stewart. "I think to some degree, the people (managers) wanted to participate," Dahle said. "I don't think we'll ever know how many times this guy (Stewart) was told no."

November 3, 2005 Courier-Journal
The Bullitt County man who claimed a hoax caller duped him into sexually humiliating a teenage McDonald's employee at the restaurant last year apologized to his victim yesterday and said he was ashamed of what he did. "I had no intention of hurting anyone," Walter W. Nix Jr., 43, said in Bullitt Circuit Court to Louise Ogborn, whom he forced to sodomize him in April 2004. Nix has said he was following the orders of the caller, who he thought was a police officer. But Judge Tom Waller refused to accept a deal in which Nix had offered to plead guilty to a reduced charge of sexual misconduct and unlawful imprisonment in exchange for a sentence of one year's probation. Waller let Nix withdraw his plea and set his trial on charges of sodomy and assault for Dec. 13. That's the same day that David N. Stewart, a former private prison guard from Fountain, Fla., is scheduled to stand trial on charges of impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy for allegedly perpetrating the hoax during a call to the Mount Washington restaurant. Law enforcement officials have said they suspect Stewart was behind at least 69 other hoaxes pulled off at other businesses in 32 states from 1995 through last year. He has been charged only in Bullitt County and pleaded not guilty there.

November 2, 2005 Courier-Journal
Bullitt Circuit Judge Tom Waller this morning rejected a plea agreement for a man who admitted sexually humiliating a teenager who was strip-searched last year at the Mount Washington McDonald's where she worked. Walter Nix Jr., 43, pleaded guilty last month to unlawful imprisonment and sexual misconduct as part of a plea bargain that would have given him one year probation. The deal fell through after Louise Ogborn, 19, who was forced to sodomize Nix as part of telephone hoax at the store on April 9, 2004, objected to portions that allowed Nix to deny wrongdoing and to avoid registering as a sex offender. Judge Waller set Nix's case for Dec. 13. Ogborn was detained for nearly four hours in the hoax, which was one of 70 perpetrated in 32 states from 1995 through last year. A private prison guard, David N. Stewart, of Fountain, Fla., was charged in July 2004 with impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy in the Mount Washington case. He has pleaded not guilty and is set for trial Dec. 13.

November 2, 2005 Courier-Journal
A teenager who was strip-searched in April 2004 at the Mount Washington McDonald's where she worked is objecting to terms of the plea bargain struck for the man who admitted sexually humiliating her. As part of the agreement, Walter Nix Jr., 43, pleaded guilty last month to unlawful imprisonment and sexual misconduct, and was to be sentenced today in Bullitt Circuit Court to one year's probation under those charges. But Louise Ogborn, 19, who was forced to sodomize Nix as part of telephone hoax at the store on April 9, 2004, objects to portions of the deal that allowed him to deny wrongdoing and to avoid registering as a sex offender, according to lawyers for both sides. "The deal will not go through," said William C. Boone Jr., Ogborn's co-counsel. Nix's lawyer, Kathleen Schmidt, said she will ask Judge Tom Waller to enforce the plea agreement today. If he doesn't, Nix will have the option of withdrawing his plea and going to trial, or accepting an agreement with harsher terms. Nix had been charged with sodomy and assault, which carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison. Nix has claimed he was duped into humiliating Ogborn by a man who called the McDonald's pretending to be a police officer investigating a theft. Nix was engaged at the time to the store's assistant manager, Donna Jean Summers, who, at the behest of the caller, had taken away Ogborn's clothes before calling Nix in to help watch the teen. Nix has said the man on the phone ordered him to direct Ogborn to do exercises in the nude and perform oral sex on him. He said he also slapped her several times on the buttocks at the direction of the caller. Ogborn was detained for nearly four hours in the hoax, which was one of 70 perpetrated in 32 states from 1995 through last year. A private prison guard, David N. Stewart, of Fountain, Fla., was charged in July 2004 with impersonating a police officer and soliciting sodomy in the Mount Washington case. He has pleaded not guilty and is set for trial Dec. 13. ABC Primetime is scheduled to broadcast a segment Nov. 10 about the Mount Washington case, according to Yater, who said Ogborn was interviewed for it last week by a producer and reporter John Quinones.

Bay County Jail and Annex
Panama City, Florida
CCA
June 19, 2008 News-Herald
A Corrections Corporation of America officer was arrested Thursday and charged with three counts of sexual battery, police said. Robert C. Heller, 27, of Parker, was a CCA employee assigned to the Bay County Jail, Detective Aaron Wilson with the Parker Police Department said. No further information was available Thursday night.

June 17, 2008 News-Herald
It is going to cost more, but Bay County commissioners expect to get their money's worth out of Sheriff Frank McKeithen when he takes over operations of the county's jail facility in October. Commissioners passed an ordinance Tuesday placing McKeithen at the helm when current operator Corrections Corporation of America leaves in the fall. He officially will take over Oct. 9. There was little discussion on the matter at the commission meeting. Most of the talking took place weeks ago. In May, when Tennessee-based CCA cited financial hardship and announced it would be leaving, Commission Chairman Jerry Girvin described more of an opportunity than crisis. The county had been critical of the company for several incidents through the years, including hostage standoffs, smuggled contraband and sex scandals. "While we're not totally delighted with the concept, it's now in our lap and we'll deal with it," Girvin said at the time. "Really, in most of the counties in Florida, the sheriff does run the jail." McKeithen told the board June 3 that the Bay County Sheriff's Office could operate the facility for $17,855,216 a year. That is about $7 more per inmate, per day than CCA's price, which McKeithen said is because county employees require more pay and benefits. Also, Bay County spokeswoman Valerie Lovett said peripheral details, such as who would provide food and health services at the facility, still are being worked out. Such costs would be above and beyond the sheriff's estimate. Commissioners stressed Tuesday that CCA should be held accountable to their agreement to construct the current expansion project at the U.S. 231 jail annex. "We need to hold the money until we're sure they have fulfilled all their responsibilities," said Commissioner George Gainer. County Attorney Terrell Arline said such things are being handled. The county, he said, also will be requesting CCA further explain its exit. "One of our intentions is to have them explain, in writing, how they were not able to fulfill their obligations," Arline said.

June 8, 2008 News-Herald
Originally, Sheriff Frank McKeithen was reluctant to run Bay County's jail system. But in an interview last week, McKeithen was armed with ideas and plans for changes at the local jail. McKeithen stressed, however, that he does not have the job yet. The Bay County Commission will meet June 17 and is expected to vote on McKeithen's proposal to run the jail, taking over the job from the private Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA. During their last meeting, commissioners supported the idea. "It's not going to be easy," McKeithen said. "Every day will be a work in progress. We can't get complacent." If commissioners approve him for the job, McKeithen would send every jail employee an information packet that will let them know where they stand, he said. Nearly 300 people work at two local jail facilities, one downtown and the other at the jail annex near Bayou George, which is being expanded and eventually will replace the downtown facility. "We're not going to leave them hanging," McKeithen said. "Everybody there will have an opportunity to retain their jobs." As long as current employees are properly qualified, they most likely would keep their jobs, McKeithen added. However, every employee also would have to fill out an application and go through the application process, he said. "I have confidence in the people that are there, and they are going to be there," McKeithen said. He said it was too early too say how employees at the jail would be structured and managed, but he did talk about the need to streamline the two organizations. Jail employees would be part of the "family" that makes up the Sheriff's Office, McKeithen said. In his budget, McKeithen has approved a raise for the starting salary of jail employees from about $26,000 a year to $30,000 a year. New ideas -- The sheriff has several new ideas about how things should be run. To start, he said, jail officials would implement an inmate management system that would give corrections officials a "better handle on these prisoners." McKeithen mentioned that in the past, some inmates were kept in jail past their release dates. In November, nine inmates were released from the jail before their release dates and had to return. McKeithen said the new inmate management system would work closely with courthouse officials to ensure these kinds of incidents don't happen. McKeithen also said he wants a Web site that would let the public know inmate status, visiting hours and other important information. The sheriff also expressed concern for the treatment of inmates' relatives. "We want to better train our staff in customer service," McKeithen said. Parents, siblings and others who visit an inmate must be treated with courtesy and respect, he added. "It's already a stressful visit," McKeithen said. "A county jail is accountable to the citizens of that county." Work-release programs and other possibilities also were on McKeithen's mind last week. These things, done right, could "save the taxpayer money," he said. The money -- Last month, Nashville-based CCA, which has run Bay County's jail operations for more than 20 years, told county officials they were leaving town. Although they had signed a contract, CCA officials said could not run the jail for the planned cost of $43.34 per inmate, per day and were leaving the county Oct. 1. According to information provided by Bay County officials, Charlotte County pays $76.29 per inmate per day. Indian River County pays $75 per inmate per day, while Santa Rosa pays $49 per inmate per day. McKeithen's proposal breaks down to $50.79 per inmate, per day, for a total of $17.9 million. McKeithen asked Rick Anglin, Bay County's liaison to CCA and contract monitor, to investigate the needs and come up with his budget proposal. Much of Anglin's job involved overseeing CCA and ensuring the company followed its contract. The sheriff said it was important to have someone outside the Sheriff's Office do the initial budget. Anglin investigated CCA's budget and the budgets of several jails across the state before writing the new budget, he said. Anglin and McKeithen estimate they would pay $13.5 million for salaries and benefits; $1.3 for medical supplies, pharmacy needs and hospital services; $115,000 for mental health services; $956,230 for food services; and $53,160 for uniforms, security equipment and ammo. McKeithen pointed out the food contract breaks down to 93 cents per meal. "There's no fat built into that budget," Anglin said. New jail -- If McKeithen takes over Oct. 1, he would inherit the jail facilities at the U.S. 231 annex site, which eventually will serve as the area's only jail. Good riddance, he said. "That is a monster," he said of the downtown jail, adding that many of the safety and security problems jail officials have dealt with over the years were caused by the dilapidated building. But when CCA leaves, it also might take with it computers, desks and other equipment the company purchased. The county would have to replace that, McKeithen said. The furnishings and equipment in the new buildings will stay, McKeithen said. "It does appear to be a state-of-the-art facility," he added. That facility is part of a residential neighborhood, something McKeithen is taking into account. Inmates will only be released from the U.S. 231 site if they have a ride or a cab. If they do not, they will be taken to the courthouse and released from an office there, McKeithen said. This will keep former inmates from walking through a residential neighborhood and place them closer to Bay County's bus station, rescue mission and other services they might need, he added. Though he might have been reluctant at first, McKeithen seemed to be looking forward to the new situation. "I'm to the point were I'm ready for the challenge," he said. "I want this to be the best jail in the state of Florida."

June 6, 2008 News-Herald
If it's true that you get what you pay for, then Bay County should receive moderately better operation of its jail with Sheriff Frank McKeithen in charge. County commissioners indicated Tuesday that they plan to hire the Sheriff's Office to run the jail and replace Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee-based company that has contracted to do the job for the last 23 years. CCA informed the county last month that it was seeking a divorce, citing irreconcilable financial differences: Officials said they couldn't provide adequate service for what the county was paying them. Enter McKeithen, who previously had expressed a willingness to assume responsibility for the jail but told commissioners up front that it would cost them more. Tuesday, he laid out the numbers: Whereas CCA had been charging the county $46.18 per inmate per day (which was scheduled to drop to $43.34 when the new jail annex opens this fall), the Sheriff's Office said it would charge $50.79 - or about $18 million a year, $3 million more than CCA. Saving money was costing the county numerous headaches. Under CCA's direction, the jail had experienced several embarrassing - and sometimes dangerous - incidents in recent years, often resulting from staff failures. How much of that was due to low salaries and how much to CCA's training and oversight? We should find out the answer soon enough. Either way, the jail needed a fresh start. The question is, should the county have spent more time looking elsewhere before settling on the sheriff? Why not re-bid the contract and see if it could get a better deal for taxpayers? The answer is that it probably would have been a waste of time. First of all, there aren't that many companies that run jails. Indeed, the last time the county bid the work, only one other company competed with CCA. Out of Florida's 67 counties, only three - Bay, Citrus and Hernando - contract out their jail operations, and Bay has by far the cheapest per diem rate. Eight county jails are run by county commissions, and the remaining 56 are operated by the sheriffs. According to Bay County staff research, most of the counties with inmate populations comparable to Bay's pay a higher per diem than McKeithen's estimate. One advantage to turning the jail over to the sheriff is that if issues arise, the county can deal directly with a local official it knows well, instead of some corporate bureaucracy. Furthermore, that official is elected, which means he has to answer to the public for the jail's performance. Commissioners still must keep a close eye on the bottom line, and that means watching out for unintended expenses that might crop up that would significantly boost McKeithen's per diem estimate. For instance, according to the terms of the CCA contract, any equipment purchased after 2006 belongs to CCA. If the company takes that stuff with it when it leaves, how much will it cost to replace it? McKeithen says it might take a year to determine exactly what it will cost to run the jail. He deserves an opportunity to demonstrate it will be money well spent.

June 3, 2008 News-Herald
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen informed county officials Tuesday he could take over jail operations for just less than $18 million a year. "I haven't sugar-coated these numbers; these are real," McKeithen told county commissioners during their regular meeting. "With all due respect, this will be my only proposal. I'm not going to compete with anyone." The cost estimate, breaking down to $50.79 per inmate, per day, is higher than the current $46.18 charged by Corrections Corporation of America. The company is walking away from the jail in October, shy of a contract-stipulated drop to $43.34 upon the completion of the jail expansion project at the annex property off U.S. 231. McKeithen said the higher quote primarily was because county employees require a more competitive salary and benefits. "It's a little higher rate," conceded Bay County Commission Chairman Jerry Girvin, "but let's face it; a lot of the problems have been because of the salary." The board was unanimously receptive to the sheriff's projections. Legal counsel, however, advised that a formal ordinance declaring such would need to be written up for the June 17 county meeting and approved. "I think what we're saying, sheriff ... you'll have a new hat to wear," Girvin said. McKeithen stressed his numbers were only estimates. The per diem rate also assumes a minimum of 963 jail beds is filled. "It would take a year to realize exactly what it's going to cost out there," he said. Officials have budgeted $16.8 million in jail costs for the 2008 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, according to Bay County spokeswoman Valerie Lovett. Of that amount, $16.2 million would be paid to CCA to cover the per diem expenses; the other $600,000 would cover costs, such as building maintenance, that are not in CCA's contract, Lovett said. Had CCA continued its contract another year at the lower per diem rate, the county would have paid $15.2 million to CCA for Fiscal Year 2009, and the overall cost would have been $15.8 million. Commissioner Bill Dozier said the sheriff's numbers seemed right, as opposed to CCA's $43. When alerting the county to their planned departure, company officials cited inadequate finances. "This is realistic," Dozier said. "That was unrealistic." If the ordinance is approved at the commission's next meeting, McKeithen will not take over the facility until CCA's October exit.

June 3, 2008 WMBB
Running the Bay County jail is not the most glamorous of jobs, but Sheriff Frank McKeithen has offered to take on the task to the delight of the Bay County Commission. At Tuesday's regular Commission meeting McKeithen made clear that he could not garuntee there would be no problems under his watch. "I'm not going to tell you there will never be a hostage situation or jail break or issues in jail but I will tell you that there will be far less than what CCA has had to deal with in that facility downtown," said McKeithen. Last month Bay County expressed disappointment that Corrections Corporation of America would not run the new jail at a rate of $43 a day per prisoner, but Tuesday they said McKeithen's offer of $50 per prisoner a day was reasonable. "We have looked at jails all over the state of Florida and the typical per day jail rate is $54 to $64 throughout the state," said Chairman Jerry Girvin. The Sheriff estimates that the total budget for the year will be around $17.8 million- that's an increase of one million after CCA leaves- and McKeithen says that money is largely due to raises for personnel. "There is a possibility that if this amount of money is given that we may have money left over. There's a possibility that we may have to ask you for more money," McKeithen said. Commissioners say choosing the Sheriff over another private contractor is the most preferable of options. "This is not a knee jerk reaction. This is something that everyone of us has taken time with, everyone of us, the sheriff, and our staff," said Commissioner Mike Thomas. County Attorneys will draft an ordinance in the coming weeks to be considered in a public hearing at it's next meeting on June 17th.

May 27, 2008 News-Herald
Bay County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously rejected an offer by Emerald Correctional Management to drop its lawsuit against the county in exchange for the keys to its jails. The offer was passed on to the board by County Attorney Terrel Arline. "Can we laugh first?" asked Commissioner Mike Thomas. Emerald Correctional Management filed suit against the county in 2006, claiming the bidding process for the construction of the new jail off U.S. 231 was flawed. Arline said he recommended the offer be rejected, but was obligated to inform the commission about what was being put on the table. "Would ‘Hell no' be appropriate?" Commissioner George Gainer said. "I was gonna use those terms," Arline replied, "but I bit my tongue." Although Emerald Correctional was the original low bidder on the project, after some bid clarifications, the job was awarded to the only other responding party, Corrections Corporation of America. The Tennessee-based CCA currently is constructing the new county jail but recently notified the county it would be pulling out of its contract Oct. 1 because of financial concerns. Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen is researching how much it would cost his office to take over the facility. He has told commissioners it would be more than what CCA is charging: $46.18 per inmate, per day. Upon completion of the new jail expansion, the rate was expected to drop to about $43. Commissioners approved an agreement Tuesday with Tyndall Air Force Base to house Air Force pre-trial detainees at the current Bay County Jail. Thomas stipulated that any per-inmate costs agreement would need to jibe with future decisions regarding management of the jail once CCA departs.

May 21, 2008 News-Herald
A Bay County Jail captain has been placed on administrative leave after a weekend traffic crash. Capt. Stacy C. Blakeney, 36, was driving an estimated 80 mph in a 35 mph zone on Beach Drive when he rolled his vehicle late Sun-day, according to a Panama City Police Department crash report. Police said Blakeney was driving west near Buena Vista Boule-vard about 11:30 p.m., and his vehicle drifted off the road. His 2003 Chevrolet struck a power pole and began to spin. The vehicle crossed the front yard of a home, crashed through a row of shrubs, hit two trees and flipped, landing on its top in the next yard. Blakeney was not seriously injured, police reported. Police estimated damage to the vehicle at $15,000, to the power pole at $3,000 and to landscaping at $2,000. Criminal charges are pending the results of a blood-alcohol test, police reported. Joe Ponte, warden of the Bay County Jail, said Blakeney declined to speak to supervisors about the circumstances of the crash. With criminal charges pending, he cannot be com-pelled to make a statement, Ponte said. Blakeney works at the downtown jail, according to Ponte.

May 14, 2008 News-Herald
It takes millions of dollars a year to run the Bay County jail but now that Corrections Corporation of America is leaving town, the County Commission worries it could cost a tremendous amount more. Bay County went to a lot of effort to try to save money on the construction on a $40 million facility including a lawsuit from a company bidding on the project. In the end the County went with Corrections Corporation of America. "The fact that they designed it around their ability to run it, that was supposed to be a savings for everybody," said Commissioner George Gainer on Wednesday. At Tuesday's County Commission meeting, Commissioners announced that CCA planned to leave the new jail in October. CCA and the County signed a 6 year contract in 2006. The terms of the contract say the company would be responsible for building the new jail to be completed by August. After the jail was complete, the County's rate per prisoner per day was supposed to drop from $46 dollars to $43 a day in 2009. "My problem is they're not sticking around long enough for Bay County to realize if the design is one that is going to save us money. If it's what we paid for," said Gainer. While the County has a number of options for running the new facility, Gainer says he thinks each one would be more expensive than CCA. He hopes the commission will address his concerns at a workshop on Friday. "This whole process was entered into because of the savings on the per diem. I think we're paying $43 a day now and if we've got to pay $56 at this facility- I think that $13 a day is the basis of a tremendous lawsuit back against CCA," said Gainer. CCA's official reason for leaving the county was that wages and benefits for staff could not be covered with the rate worked out with Bay County. County Commissioners will weigh three options at a special workshop Friday including running the jail themselves as a County Department, asking Sheriff Frank McKeithen to step in, or hiring another private contractor to run the jail.

May 13, 2008 News-Herald
Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, let the county know late Monday that it would be abandoning its local operations in 150 days, or Oct. 1. “Where our path will take us, we don’t know,” Bay County Commission Chairman Jerry Girvin said of the question left in CCA’s wake. “It’s been a long-term relationship, but it’s probably one that’s run its course, and it’s time to go separate directions.” During the commission’s meeting Tuesday, the board briefly discussed the last-minute news before scheduling a workshop for 2 p.m. Friday at Panama City City Hall to further explore the county’s options. Girvin said the two most probable options would be to either run the jail as a county department or turn operations over to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. “Really, in most of the counties in Florida, the sheriff does run the jail,” Girvin said Tuesday afternoon. CCA, which has operated the area’s jails for more than 20 years, cited financial concerns as the reason for pulling out of Bay County. Spokeswoman Louise Grant said the Tennessee-based company could not continue to pay the competitive wages needed to “retain the brightest and the best staff.” Locally, CCA employs almost 290 people. Warden Joe Ponte said the average jail employee makes about $28,000. CCA entered into a new contract with Bay County in 2006 that stipulated a per-inmate rate of $46.18 per day. Last year, the company was paid $15.8 million. The six-year contract also called for the company to expand on the facilities at the U.S. 231 annex site, which will serve as the area’s only jail once the downtown location is closed. County officials said the work should be complete before CCA’s October departure. Ponte said his staff has been made aware of the situation. “As it starts to sink in, people are asking questions: ‘Who’s going to run it?’” Ponte said. “We don’t have any answers to that stuff.” The possibility of running local jails is not a new concept to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. Department officials have suspected this day might arrive and have assessed if such a venture would be a viable option. “We’ve heard these rumors here, lately,” Major J.B. Holloway said of CCA’s exit, sounding confident about Sheriff Frank McKeithen’s prospects of running such an operation. “The sheriff has run a jail on a small scale,” Holloway said, referring to his boss’s stint heading up a Gulf County facility when McKeithen was the sheriff there. “I feel certain he could do it here.” Regardless of what Bay County officials decide to do when CCA leaves, Ponte hopes the people currently staffing the facilities will be included in the plans. “This is a jail, it’s going to be run as a jail, and they’re going to need people to run it,” he said, adding that CCA also is offering to relocate some employees to other prison operations but that “a lot of people don’t want to move.” Holloway said it would be “premature” to discuss possible costs of running Bay County’s operations, but the Sheriff’s Office previously stated it might not be able to match CCA’s price. Girvin hinted the county might be open to paying more. That would depend on many things,” Girvin said. “How much more? What kind of bang are we getting for our buck?” CCA problems -- At times, officials have indicated CCA’s bang for the buck has not been sufficient. Since first beginning work in Bay County in October 1985, the private correctional company has weathered a number of storms that caused local officials concern. Last November, CCA released nine inmates early by accident. In June 2007, an inmate fashioned a plastic utensil into a lock-pick and briefly broke out of his cell. In 2005, a CCA nurse was fired after an inmate gave birth inside the jail annex four hours after complaining of labor pains. Another nurse, as well as a supervisor, was fired for having sex with an inmate. In 2004, a nurse was shot in a hostage standoff after inmates escaped from their cells. CCA said such instances were not a factor in the decision to leave town. “No, operations did not play a role in this at all,” said Grant, stressing CCA’s financial concerns. “Nothing else played into that.” Recently, county officials have made strong statements directed at CCA in regard to the company’s mishaps. “They’re going to run it right, or we’ll get somebody who will run it right,” said County Commissioner Mike Nelson, following the accidental inmate release last fall. Girvin said that although CCA’s notice was not expected, it is an issue county officials are ready to address. “While we’re not totally delighted with the concept,” Girvin said, “it’s now in our lap and we’ll deal with it.”

May 13, 2008 WJHG
Corrections Corporation of America, C-C-A, the private company which has operated the Bay County Jail since 1985, says it has had enough and is cancelling its contract effect October first. C-C-A made the disclosure in a letter to the Bay County Commission revealed this morning. Reason for the termination was not disclosed. The company said it was exercising its 150 day option spelled out in it 2006 contract with Bay County. The county commission has scheduled a special meeting for Friday7 afternoon to discuss several options, two of which include having the Sheriff take back operations of the jail, or the commission operating the jail itself. Would the Sheriff be interested? A spokesman for Sheriff Frank McKeithen said this morning he would not have any comment on the C-C-A issue until he meets with the county commission Friday. Meanwhile, work continues on the building of the new Bay County jail in Bayou George. CCA will finish building it before its contract expires.

November 21, 2007 News Herald
Bay County commissioners sent a clear message Tuesday to Corrections Corporation of America: Shape up or ship out, and pay $140,000. “We need to go aggressively at them,” Commissioner Mike Nelson said. “We’re gonna have to get it across to the folks up in Tennessee that we take this very seriously.” Nashville-based CCA runs the Bay County Jail and Jail Annex. On Nov. 1, the company mistakenly released nine inmates early from a substance abuse program. All the inmates voluntarily returned within a week. A county report released Nov. 13 listed a number of chinks in CCA’s armor. Primarily, the report cited poor judgment on the part of jail staff as the biggest reason for the oversight. “This is a jail, and it needs to be run like one,” Nelson said. “It shouldn’t have happened; I don’t want it to ever happen again.” In addition to corrective measures, such as notifying the county within 30 minutes of an incident and creating new booking and classification procedures, commissioners also are fining CCA $140,000 for the inmates’ release. The contract with the corporation stipulates financial penalties may be levied in such cases, and will be taken out of the county’s monthly payments to CCA. The agenda for Tuesday’s County Commission meeting did not list the jail issue. It came up during the commissioner comments section of the meeting. No one from CCA spoke during the meeting. The company is conducting its own investigation into the inmates’ release. County officials signed a six-year contract in May 2006 for CCA to run the facility and build a $39.7 million annex. As a condition of that contract, the county may break the relationship within 90 days without cause, or within 30 days with cause. “When we were redoing our contract we said, ‘new ballgame,’” Commission Chairman Jerry Girvin noted. Nelson said CCA’s frequent lapses might merit exploring other options. “What concerns me is what else is going on out there that we don’t know about,” Nelson said. “I don’t want to see the county get into the jail business … but the sheriff may have to.” Girvin directed county staff to begin considering other options. He advised that such a consideration would be in its infancy, and staffers should “not go 24/7 on it” in the hopes CCA will begin tightening up its operation.

November 20, 2007 WJHG
Bay County wants to fine the Corrections Corporation of America $140,000 for mistakenly releasing 10 inmates from the Bay County Jail earlier this month. The fine stems from an incident that happened on November 1. CCA worker released ten inmates enrolled in a drug rehab program, before they'd completed their sentences. All of the inmates surrendered after CCA discovered the mistake and notified them. A review by the county contract monitor cited poor staff judgment, broad booking procedures, inadequate staffing, and a seven-hour delay between the time the incident occurred and the time it the contract monitor was notified. County commissioners say the penalty is justified because the release violated the contract the county has with CCA to operate the county jail system. The contract provides for the fine, based on the $1.4 million monthly amount the county pays CCA to house inmates. The fine is one percent of the monthly invoice, for each inmate released. Commissioners say the incident is unacceptable. Mike Nelson, Bay County Commissioner, "What I'm really upset about is there was a seven hour delay before anyone at our place was ever notified, and what concerns me even more is what else is going on our there that we don't even know about?" Commissioner Nelson says the county will have to watch CCA closer in the future. The board discussed other options including the termination of CCA's contract, but did not take any action.

November 14, 2007 News-Herald
Someone with Corrections Corporation of America should have noticed nine inmates were being freed early from the Bay County Jail on Nov. 1, according to a county report released Tuesday. “That kind of carelessness is something we can’t have,” said Bay County Commissioner Mike Nelson. “I mean, they’re running a jail.” Employees of the Tennessee-based company that operates the jail and jail annex for the county mistakenly released the inmates who were part of the facility’s Lifeline Substance Abuse Program. All nine inmates voluntarily returned within a week. Warden Joseph Ponte said last week that CCA staff members mistakenly released the individuals because their graduation certificates were printed early by a staff member and misinterpreted by other staff members. The documents had the correct release date for the inmates, but staff members overlooked it, Ponte said. The county report found there were numerous times at which CCA employees should have caught the mistake. At the very least, suspicions should have been raised when the inmates themselves voiced concern, the report stated. “Apparently, the staff they were telling thought it was someone else’s responsibility,” said Rick Anglin, the county’s contract monitor who interviewed CCA staff and inmates while preparing the report. Anglin said if he had to pick one reason for the mishap, it would be staffing. Three key staffers in the classification department were absent the day of the incident. Another CCA shortfall mentioned in the report concerned a seven-hour delay between the realization something had gone wrong and notification of the county. Nelson said Ponte has yet to call the county manager to discuss the matter. The report lists several corrective actions to be taken. Primarily, the county liaison must be made aware of an “unusual incident” within 30 minutes. New, clearly defined booking and classification procedures also are called for. The county’s contract allows for financial penalties when such an incident occurs. Nelson said county attorneys are pursuing that course. CCA began its own investigation into the matter the day it happened, Ponte said. That investigation should wrap up within two weeks. Nelson said the incident has shown the county needs to keep a closer watch over the corrections company. “We’re gonna have to tighten up on them,” the commissioner said. “They’re gonna run it right, or we’ll get somebody that will run it right.”

November 5, 2007 WMBB TV13
An investigation is underway at the Bay County Jail Annex after an incident that Chairman Commissioner Mike Nelson calls inexcusable. Nine inmate's were released from the jail prior to the completion of their count-ordered drug program and then told to come back. Thursday evening, The Bay County Jail Annex released nine inmate's in the facilities lifeline substance abuse program, which is a 120 day program. All nine offenders, five males, and four females were being housed for misdemeanors charges and were expected to complete the program within the next few weeks. Eight of the offenders voluntarily returned to the program. The ninth offender, whose residence is out of the state, is in the process of being notified. "The county is going to put every effort to find out how this happened and make sure it never happens again," said Nelson. Warden Ponte said the mistake happened when inmate’s completion certificates were printed early. "I apologize, this shouldn't have happened. We are doing everything we can to prevent this from happening in the future," said Ponte. The Bay County Jail is managed by Corrections Corporation of America and hope to have the investigation completed in the next couple weeks.

September 27, 2007 News-Herald
Emerald Correctional Management LLC has taken a step back from the $13.2 million it sought from Bay County — a considerable step. The Louisiana company, which argues it was slighted during the bidding process in 2005 for the county’s jail expansion project, now is seeking $514,050 to settle a lawsuit. Obed Dorceus, attorney for Emerald Correctional, said the reduction doesn’t reflect a loss of resolve. “My client wanted to make sure the county knew he was willing to compromise,” Dorceus said. “But we still believe in the case.” The county has not accepted the settlement offer. Instead, it is requesting Emerald Correctional pay $35,000 in legal fees and drop the case. W.C. Henry, who represents the county, called the original $13.2 million “ridiculous, absurd; you’ve got to be kidding me.” The most recent offer is “still blatantly absurd.” Emerald first brought suit against the county in 2006. The company claimed the county’s bidding process was tainted. Only two companies responded to the call for bids on the project; Emerald’s came in a few million dollars below Tennessee-based CCA. CCA, however, was awarded the job after both companies were asked to clarify their bids. The company had a 20-year history working with the county. The contract Bay County awarded CCA was for six years and more than $36 million, and covers the demolition of the downtown jail, the expansion of the jail annex and management of the completed facility. Ground has been broken on the annex, with an expected completion date of May 2008. Emerald sued the county, alleging it didn’t adhere to bidding rules. Bay County Circuit Judge Glenn Hess dismissed the six-pronged complaint. In May, an appellate court overturned two of Hess’ dismissals. Henry said the entire case has stalled to some degree because Emerald has not filed a new complaint after withdrawing the initial suit and focusing on the two remaining issues. “We’ve kind of been working in limbo,” Henry said. “Right now, there is no complaint. It’s kind of weird; this is very strange.” Dorceus said he plans to file a new complaint soon. Depositions are planned for Oct. 10. Several county employees, as well as Commissioner Mike Thomas, will be deposed via video. Henry said the $35,000 legal fees offer is good until Monday. He said it would spare everyone the costs of a courtroom. “We’re gonna win, and we’re gonna win big in the end,” he said. “If they see the light and realize they’re going to lose, we could save the costs.”

August 21, 2007 News-Herald
Seven suspected illegal immigrants were arrested Tuesday at a county work site. Bay County sheriff’s deputies made the arrests Tuesday at the county courthouse. The men were employed by BCL Contractors to work on the new sally port project, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. Deputies said they checked the employment records of the workers and found the men had used stolen Social Security numbers. Each of the workers was charged with criminal use of personal identification information. The arrests could be a problem for county officials. The Bay County Commission unanimously passed a resolution in March that would allow commissioners to break contracts with companies that hired illegal workers. The resolution provided the option of banning those companies from seeking county contracts for at least a year. County spokeswoman Valerie Lovett said Tuesday evening that the suspected illegals were working on a project overseen by CCA, the company that runs the county jail. “At this point, we don’t have the details,” Lovett said. “We will be having a conversation with CCA to find out what happened.”

June 21, 2007 News Herald
Bay County Jail officials still are trying to figure out how a murder suspect escaped from his cell Monday night. Hermon Harmon, who faces the death penalty if convicted of murder in the February shooting death of Jeff Gillman, picked the lock on the door of his maximum security cell at the Bay County Jail Annex on Nehi Road, using shaved plastic eating utensils, according to an arrest affidavit. Plastic utensils were found in Harmon’s cell, but Warden Joe Ponte said that is normal. “We give them (inmates) plastic utensils with every meal,” he said. Ponte said jail maintenance workers took the lock apart Tuesday and said it was working fine. Ponte asked the lock’s manufacture, Brinks Lock Company, to send someone to examine the lock. “We want to make sure we didn’t miss anything,” he said, “and to make sure the locks are working properly.” An internal investigation is ongoing, and Ponte said it should be completed early next week. After Harmon was captured Monday night, officials checked the other locks in the segregation pod at the annex. Only one lock was found to be defective, and it has been fixed, Ponte said. Ponte began his term as warden in January, and he said that prior to his arrival, the locks had a tendency to be broken easily. If the inmates slammed the door shut when the bolt was extended, it would damage the internal lock mechanism, Ponte said. Inmates also could stuff anything in their cell into the locks and that could short out the electronics, allowing the cell door to open.

June 20, 2007 News Herald
A man charged with murder broke out of his maximum-security cell Monday night, using plastic eating utensils to pick the lock, according to an arrest affidavit. Herman Harmon, 45, escaped about 9 p.m. from cell number 8 in a maximum-security pod at the Bay County Jail Annex on Nehi Road, said Warden Joe Ponte. It’s not clear how Harmon, who is charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 26 shooting death of Jeff Gillman, picked the lock on his cell. He faces additional charges after officers eventually apprehended him. Ponte said the cell’s lock was working properly and an internal investigation is under way. Ponte said he isn’t sure how Harmon got out of his cell and didn’t want to speculate until the investigation is completed. Once out of his cell, Harmon entered the common area of the jail, then left the pod through a sliding metal door, which might have been open, Ponte said. The warden said he’s also heard a few versions from inmates and corrections officers on how Harmon got out of the pod. The pod doors have a defect that allows them to be opened if someone forcibly pushes it, but it makes a lot of noise. The warden said that all the pod doors are due to be replaced. Outside of the pod, Harmon accessed a small, open post, where he grabbed correctional officer Beverly Brennen by the neck and demanded her portable radio, the affidavit stated. Brennen and Harmon wrestled briefly and Brennen was able to call for help, Ponte said. Harmon eventually got the radio and tried to have the control section open the door leading to the exercise yard, but it was too late. A responding officer captured Harmon in the hallway just outside of his pod, Ponte said. Harmon has been charged with battery on a correctional officer, attempted escape, depriving an officer with means of communication and possession of contraband in a detention facility, according to court records. Judge Thomas F. Welch ordered Harmon held on an $85,000 bond. Officers found a garrote, which was made out of string, Ponte said. But Ponte doubted the garrote was intended to hurt someone. “It was found in his cell,” he said. “So if he wanted to do harm, he would have taken it with him.”

June 19, 2007 WMBB TV
In a closed executive session Tuesday, Emerald Correctional Management asked for $13m. Emerald says the county violated its own bidding process by awarding the new county jail contract to Corrections Corporation of America. Shortly after the February bid award, Emerald filed suit but the case was dismissed. Emerald appealed the decision and won the right for the case to be reviewed again. Bay County Commission Chairman Mike Nelson said earlier the Commission would likely not approve the settlement. Emerald has threatened to sue if they aren't granted the $13m.

June 15, 2007 WMBB TV
Next Tuesday the Bay County Commission will hold an Executive Session to consider a lawsuit settlement. Emerald Correctional Management, Inc. filed suit against the County after they say the County unfairly awarded a contract for the new jail to Corrections Corporation of America. Emerald Correctional says CCA was allowed to adjust their bid after it had already been submitted. Now Emerald Correctional is making an offer to settle for more than $13 million in damages.

June 6, 2007 News Herald
Unsuccessful jail expansion bidder Emerald Correctional Management Inc. has offered to settle its lawsuit against Bay County for $13.2 million. The County Commission will meet in executive session June 19 to consider the offer. County officials hinted Tuesday they were not inclined to pay any money to the company, which alleges that the county violated state law and the terms of its own request for proposals when it awarded a jail expansion and operations contract to Corrections Corporation of America in February last year. “Why should we pay them anything when we followed the law?” Commissioner Bill Dozier said. Steve Afeman, executive vice president of the Shreveport, La.-based Emerald Correctional Management, said Tuesday $12.7 million is being sought in damages — money the company would have realized had it been awarded the six-year contract. The remaining amount pertains to time and money invested in preparing for the project, including legal fees. The County Commission opened bidding for a new jail contract in June 2005, which called for expanding the jail annex on Nehi Road, tearing down the downtown Bay County Jail and constructing new holding cells connected to the Bay County Courthouse. Only Emerald and Tennessee-based CCA responded, with Emerald bidding at $31.8 million and CCA at $38.8 million. Both companies were asked to clarify parts of their proposals, and the county determined that Emerald’s price would be $35.4 million and CCA’s would be $36.4 million. CCA had been operating Bay County’s jails for more than 20 years, and that longevity coupled with a satisfactory performance weighed on commissioners’ decision to go with CCA. Circuit Court Judge Glenn Hess in May last year threw out all six of Emerald’s complaints against the county. Last month, the First District Court of Appeal ruled that Hess improperly dismissed two of six complaints and directed him to reconsider them.

May 7, 2007 WMBB TV
An appeals court opinion could lead to a challenge for the Bay County Commission. Back in June 2005, Bay County Commissioners opened bidding for a contract to expand the Bay County Jail. Two companies entered bids. They were Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, and Emerald Correction Management, with Emerald entering the lower bid. Both companies were asked to clarify certain points of their proposals, resulting in a reduction of cost for CCA. The Commission then entered into contract negotiations with CCA in December 2005. Emerald filed a letter in January 2006, formally protesting the negotiations. The County Manager denied the protest, based on a recommendation from the county purchasing agent. In February 2006, Emerald filed a six count complaint. All six counts were dismissed. The opinion from the District Court of Appeals, First District, agrees with four of the dismissals, but raises objections to two. One count challenges the county's decision to all CCA to estimate construction cost that may later inflate. The other count relates to the county allowing CCA to make certain changes to portion of their proposal. The opinion now leaves an opening for Emerald to motion for a rehearing on those counts.

February 6, 2007 NEWS 13
At Tuesday's Bay County Commission meeting, commissioners voiced their concerns with CCA. Commissioners say CCA did not consult them before hiring a new warden. They say CCA's contract requires them to let the commission have more of a say in decision process. "You expect a little better communication and a little better adherence to the contract then what we're getting out of CCA," says Commissioner George Gainer. The commissioners also made it clear that they have no problems with the actual warden. Joe Ponte comes to Bay County from Massachusetts. His resume boasts over 30 years of experience managing jails. Ponte says he's happy to be working in Bay County. "We've got one real old facility which we're in today and then the annex which is not too old... but we're going to open a brand new facility. So it really gives us a lot of things to look forward to in this county," says Ponte. And Ponte hopes to bring better communication to the table. "I think we could have done a better job and I think everyone realizes that. I think we need to respect the county's wishes. We're looking forward to working with the county to reassure them that there isn't a second time," says Ponte. Commissioners plan to write a letter to CCA telling the company exactly what they expect in the future. "I was very impressed with him but I am underwhelmed with CCA and their total disregard to their contractual obligations to Bay County," says Gainer.

January 17, 2007 News Herald
The final defendant in a 2004 jail standoff was cleared Tuesday for trial. Kevin Winslett appeared before Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet for a hearing to determine if Winslett is mentally competent for trial. Winslett had been at a state mental hospital since December 2005, but doctors cleared him a month ago to return to Bay County. Tuesday’s hearing, which is required by law, was little more than a formality because Winslett’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Doug White, acknowledged he had no evidence to dispute the recent findings. Bay County Sheriff’s Office investigators said Winslett, Kevin Nix, James Norton and Matthew Coffin took over the fourth floor of the Bay County Jail on Sept. 5 and 6, 2004, and held jail nurses hostage. The standoff ended when deputies stormed the floor and shot one of the men and a nurse.

January 5, 2007 News-Herald
The state Supreme Court is weighing whether the property a prison sits on in Bay County is exempt from taxation. Bay County Property Appraiser Rick Barnett said the court heard the case Thursday. In 2006, the First District Court of Appeal ruled the land could not be taxed, upholding a decision by Circuit Court Judge DeDee Costello. She ruled the prison property is leased through a state department, making it ineligible for property tax. Because the issue is one being debated across the state, the appeals court moved the question to the state’s highest court. Corrections Corporation of America, the company that runs the county jail, owes about $2.2 million in back taxes, Barnett said.

November 21, 2006 News-Herald
A former jail nurse shot during a hostage situation in 2004 sued Corrections Corporation of America, Bay County and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office on Monday. Ann Marie “Amie” Hunt filed suit for loss of earnings, pain and suffering and medical expenses incurred after Sheriff’s Office deputies shot her three times Sept. 6, 2004, when firing at four inmates who had taken control of the Bay County Jail’s fourth floor. The bullets entered her hip, back and left leg, damaging bones and vital organs. According to the lawsuit, she has been in physical rehabilitation since the shooting. “On or about September 6, 2004, several inmates took advantage of known flaws in the security of the Bay County Jail and upon seizing the opportunity of those security flaws, the inmates took control over the jail and intentionally took control over the plaintiff Amie Hunt,” attorney H. Lawrence Perry wrote in the complaint. Perry said Corrections Corporation of America, the jail’s Tennessee-based corporate owner, Sheriff’s Office and county, failed to maintain the electrical door locking system. The takeover began when one of the inmates got out of a cell that did not lock properly and freed the others, according to witness testimony at a criminal trial in this case. Three of the four men involved in the takeover, Kevin Nix, James Norton and Matthew Coffin were convicted of false imprisonment. The fourth, alleged ringleader Kevin Winslett, has not been tried because of mental problems that have kept him in the state mental hospital. Nix, Norton and Coffin were acquitted of more serious charges in the incident, but still sentenced to 15 years in prison for their roles. Perry wrote in the lawsuit that the county, corporation and Sheriff’s Office were served with notices of intent to sue in January, but had not responded. He was unavailable for comment at his office Monday afternoon. Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ruth Sasser said Sheriff Frank McKeithen had not received the lawsuit and could not comment. Hunt testified on Sept. 8, 2005, in the trial of Norton, Nix and Coffin. “At the very beginning,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “they were a little nutty. They just wanted to find a way out. They were as polite as they could be for the situation we were in.” Then, she said, the inmates broke into the drug storage lockers and began ingesting narcotics. “They started getting high and that lasted for several hours,” Hunt said. “Then they started coming down.” She said the situation was made worse by another dorm of inmates that, while secured, were still breaking windows and going crazy after getting into a medication cart. Hunt said Nix told her that those inmates wanted her and the two other female nurses, but he would protect them. As the night progressed, she said, Nix became agitated with nurse Glenda Baker’s praying. Another nurse, Kathy Baucum, said Baker was constantly praying and also “speaking in tongues.” When it came time to offer a hostage in return for pizza and cigarettes, Nix insisted Baker go because she was “freaking him out,” Hunt said. Then Baucum developed a migraine headache and she was soon exchanged for more pizza and cigarettes. Another hostage, James Hall, had been the first to be released. That left Hunt alone with the inmates. The standoff ended, she said, when she was brought before a barred gate at the end of a hall. Nix, she said, was standing behind her with a scalpel to her throat. “I don’t know who shot me,” she said. “He was just a figure, a person standing there, then boom. I looked down and I got shot. Then boom and I got shot again.” One bullet shattered her knee, an injury that incapacitated her for months. But Hunt was able to walk into court and take the witness stand with the help of a cane.

October 20, 2006 News Herald
The Florida Commission on Ethics has agreed to issue a final order clearing two former and one current Bay County employee of ethics complaints concerning a February 2000 out-of-state trip that was paid for by a private company. A separate ethics complaint against Bob Majka, who is the assistant county manager but was chief of emergency services in 2000, alleged that he violated gift laws by accepting payment from someone for a round of golf during the 2000 trip. Majka has agreed to pay a $1,500 fine for accepting payment for the golf game by Gary Akers, a financial consultant who assists the county with bond issues, said attorney Albert Gimbel, who represented Majka in the case. “Majka had agreed to the fine a long time ago, we were just waiting for the main case to be decided,” Gimbel said. Florida law prohibits public officials from accepting any gift with a value of more than $100 from a “lobbyist.” Gimbel said the golf game was more than $100. Majka, former County Attorney Nevin Zimmerman and former County Manager Jon Mantay were part of a Bay County contingent who flew to Tennessee to view a Corrections Corporation of America jail and a publicly run facility in Arizona. CCA, based in Tennessee, paid for the officials’ airfare and lodging. The county was negotiating a new contract with CCA at the time of the trip. That parallel drew the ire of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, which initiated the ethics complaints in July 2003 and referred the case to the Florida Ethics Commission. Zimmerman said during a June 15 hearing with administrative law Judge Harry Hooper that it was reasonable and beneficial to taxpayers for a third party, such as CCA, to pay for “fact-finding” trips that county officials take. Hooper said in his recommended order to the Ethics Commission in August that the gifts were not directed to the three men, but rather to the county, so they were not required to report the gifts. Gimbel said the Ethics Commission agreed with that assessment.

August 18, 2006 News Herald
An administrative law judge has recommended clearing a former county attorney, former county manager and current assistant county manager of alleged ethics violations. Judge Harry Hooper heard arguments in the case in June against Assistant County Manager Bob Majka, former County Attorney Nevin Zimmerman and former County Manager Jon Mantay. The central question was whether the men violated ethics laws regarding gifts after they took a February 2000 trip to view a Corrections Corporation of America jail in Tennessee and a publicly run facility in Arizona. Other county officials were present. CCA, based in Tennessee, paid for the airfare and lodging of the three men and two former county commissioners. Zimmerman said during the June 15 hearing that it was reasonable and beneficial to taxpayers for a third party, such as CCA, to pay for “fact-finding” trips that county officials take. CCA has operated Bay County’s jails for 20 years, and the county was negotiating a new contract with the company at the time of the trip. That parallel drew the ire of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, which initiated the ethics complaints in July 2003 and referred the case to the Florida Ethics Commission. The commission in September 2004 found probable cause that Mantay, Zimmerman and Majka may have violated gift laws. In his recommended order, though, Hooper ruled the gifts were not directed to the three men but to the county, so they were not required to report the gifts. The attorneys for either party can file “exceptions” to the recommendation within 15 days, and the Ethics Commission will review those submissions along with Hooper’s finding before entering a final order. Ethics Commission attorney Linzie Bogan said Thursday that he likely would file a response for the commission to consider. “How I’ll respond will depend on how the judge laid out his order,” he said, explaining that he just received the order and had not looked over all of it yet. “I would hope the commission would be open to persuasion on this issue,” he said. “I still feel there are violations.”

July 20, 2006 News Herald
At least two residents who live near the Bay County Jail Annex on Nehi Road object to a proposed zoning and land-use change for adjacent property to allow jail expansion. Shelley and David Hickman, of Nehi Road, stated in a letter to county officials that they believe approving a zoning change from agriculture-timberland to public institutional for 14.2 acres will create a wave of construction of other “institutional” facilities in the area. The Planning Commission will vote on the items today at its regular meeting, and the County Commission, which has final say, will consider that recommendation when it takes up the issue in a couple of weeks. “As I see it, it would mean that there would have to be lawyer offices to aid inmates, and also do not forget about the need for bail bond facilities and halfway houses and shelters and other types of businesses that ‘feed off’ the ‘institution,’” the Hickmans wrote. In an interview, Shelley Hickman also said she thinks it is a moot point to consider the zoning and land-use changes now when the county already has awarded a contract to Corrections Corporation of America for construction at the annex. CCA officials have said they hope to break ground by December. Martin Jacobson, planning and zoning division manager, said the CCA-led construction and zoning and land-use changes are “independent of each other.” County staff is rec- ommending the switch to public institutional for the 14.2 acres, he said, with the condition that use of the property is limited to jail operations. The Florida Department of Community Affairs has to review the proposed land-use change, as it does with any property greater than 10 acres.

June 20, 2006 News Herald
On an average day, the Bay County Jail in downtown Panama City is 100 to 150 inmates above capacity. The 30-year-old facility’s design provides additional daily headaches for jail staff, inmates and defense attorneys. “There’s a lot of wasted space and there’s not enough space,” explained Assistant Warden Richard Thore. There are not enough holding cells, so interview rooms have been converted for backup use. Interviews are conducted wherever there is room. There is one small room for booking and taking fingerprints, which slows the inmate admitting process. And from the jail’s central command post, guards cannot see all of the 12-cell pods. They must be viewed individually, which necessitates several jail guards instead of one. “Everything that should be easy becomes difficult and time-consuming,” including preparing meals in a kitchen not large enough or designed to accommodate 400 inmates, Thore said. The kitchen is situated on the second floor of the six-floor building, so employees have to take extra time to pick up food on a loading dock and transfer it to the second floor. New facility. Overcrowding has persisted at both jails for at least the past 10 years, according to county inmate counts. There are 410 beds at the jail annex on Nehi Road, but there are about 500 inmates there. Both jails — operated for the past 20 years by Corrections Corporation of America — now keep inmates of all security classifications, said Jennifer Taylor, CCA’s senior director of business development. In January, Panama City Beach attorney Jeremy Early documented problems he saw at the jail for his boss, Public Defender Herman Laramore. Assistant Public Defender Susan Rogers said she forwarded Early’s memo to county officials. One issue Early identified was lack of space for female inmates, who are held long-term only at the annex on Nehi Road. In a memo on Jan. 25, Early stated that he saw at least 20 women in a holding cell at the main jail who had either pleaded out at first appearance or had been released on their own recognizance a day or two prior. Early said Judge Elijah Smiley told him to record their names. “As I started taking their names, a CCA guard came in and removed some of the women before I could get all their names … I personally heard one of the CCA guards tell (am inmate) she was being held because CCA had lost her paperwork.”

June 19, 2006 News Herald
About half of the Bay County jail system’s correctional officers left in 2004 and 28 percent quit last year, making effective and safe operations tough to achieve, county officials say. High turnover has been a primary concern of Commissioner Jerry Girvin, a retired captain with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, which ran the jail until the county awarded the original Corrections Corporation of America contract in 1985. Girvin said the constant hiring of new guards unfamiliar with Bay County’s jails jeopardizes security. “An experienced correctional officer can sense the need and circumvent a situation from occurring or minimize the effect,” he said. Jason Bradley Sims, a 30-year-old who recently was detained at the main jail on Harmon Avenue for violating his probation for a battery charge, said fighting among inmates is frequent, partly because there aren’t enough guards. “I’ve been in at least a dozen fights in the last two years,” said Sims, who has spent the majority of his life locked up in Bay County jails and in correctional institutions elsewhere in the state. Assistant Warden Richard Thore said understaffing is not leading to more inmates beating one another. “They’re going to fight whether guards are there or not,” he said. For an attorney representing an inmate at first appearance, new correctional guards are sometimes a source of frustration for mistakes made or delays in bringing inmates to the hearings. Occasionally, Deputy Public Defender Walter Smith said, guards show up with the wrong inmate because of similarities in names. Frequent turnover of jail guards, he said, contributes to complications in the first appearance process. “They always have new people coming in,” he said of CCA. New jail guards and the company they work for are not solely responsible for difficulties during a first appearance, he added. “It’s not all CCA’s fault. It’s the warrants division; it’s correctional guards calling in sick. …” Turnover problems locally also rise to the top. The past two wardens of the Bay County Jail have stayed on the job only six and eight months, respectively. Kevin Watson took the post in December 2004, relieving Denny Durbin, who was warden for 19 years. Watson requested a transfer in August 2005, citing personal reasons. Mark Henry came in as the replacement, but he departed in March, also citing personal reasons. Durbin is back as the interim warden until a new warden is found. Former wardens could not be reached for comment, but Jennifer Taylor, senior director of business development for CCA, said Watson is still with the company in Indianapolis. Her explanation for Henry’s departure was that the job “was a lot more demanding than he thought going into it.” Some of the reasons for the difficulty in drawing people into corrections work also account for the frequent departures. Starting salary currently for guards at Bay County’s jails is $27,296, and some of them decide several months or a year into the job that they can’t continue to support themselves or their families with that pay, Thore said. Quitting after a few months or a year on the job, Durbin said, is not always a symptom of dissatisfaction with the employer; it may have more to do with the general evolution of their careers. “Corrections officers are very mobile and want to try new things,” he said, noting that many former Bay County guards have ventured to Washington Correctional Institute in Washington County and other state-operated prisons. Thore said he believes that the appeal of working for state prisons, which pay more and are continually being built as Florida’s inmate population grows, is the main culprit of local turnover. “The state has given (jail guards) at least two raises in the last year-and-a-half, and that makes it extra difficult for us to compete,” he said. There are young people looking for their first job who pick a jail guard position for lack of decisiveness, Thore said. “The reality of the job hits when we’re booking 16,000 inmates a year. Sometimes, that creates a little turnover.” Of the 48 correctional guards in 2005 whose employment at Bay County’s jails was severed, 21 were voluntary and involved no misconduct. But jail guards testing positive for drug use, having unprofessional relationships with inmates and smuggling contraband into the jail also were to blame for high turnover. The guards committing these and other offenses — which totaled nine — were fired in 2005 for violating state moral character standards or violating CCA and county policies, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. Ken Kopczynski, a legislative affairs assistant for of the Florida Police Benevolent Association and vocal CCA opponent, called Bay County’s turnover outrageous. “How can you properly run a facility when half of the people don’t have any experience” at that facility? said Kopczynksi, who is also executive director of Private Corrections Institute Inc., an organization that opposes privately run correctional facilities. While the turnover rate at Bay County’s jails is high, it is tame compared to the departures at some other CCA facilities in Florida. Hernando County jails, for instance, had a turnover rate of 82 percent in 2003, 75 percent in 2004 and 69 percent in 2005. Other CCA-run facilities in Florida had the following turnover rates in 2005: Gadsden Correctional Institution, 48 percent; Lake City Correctional Facility in Columbia County, 57 percent; and Citrus County Detention Facility, 28 percent. Turnover at Bay Correctional Institute, the CCA-operated state prison on Bayline Drive off U.S. 231, was 19 percent. In 2004, turnover was 36.7 percent. Taylor said the company’s jail staff is “down some everywhere” at its 63 U.S. facilities, but it is not at a critical point. “If it was at a critical point, we’d pull people in from other facilities. “It’s hard to find people to work in a jail,” she added. “We have to do extra things to attract employees and keep them there.” The company recently started posting help wanted messages on billboards in various locations, including Bay County, Taylor said. One on Tyndall Parkway aimed at military men and women reads: “From Camouflage to Corrections.” “We’ve found that people coming out of the military make very good correctional officers,” she said. Targeting military personnel is not a new focus of CCA’s, but there has been a stronger emphasis on attaining that demographic in the past year, she added. CCA also has been filling some vacancies in Bay County with part-time correctional officers, said CCA spokesman Steve Owen. Until it gets closer to full staff, the company is operating with mandatory overtime for all correctional guards, Thore said. Thore said 10 to 15 more guards are needed to be at normal levels. Currently, about 30 non-certified officers and 147 certified officers man the two county jails. While jail guard pay is mid-range compared to what guards at other Florida CCA facilities make, it’s far from the six digit incomes corporate bigwigs bring home. The highest-paid executive for CCA, John Ferguson, has a 2006 salary of $700,000 plus a $677,727 bonus, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But Owen defended the salaries for jail guards as competitive, especially since about two months ago the company started paying people attending the three month certification school the salary of uncertified officers. Certified jail-guard pay at the Bay County jail and annex has risen almost $2,000 in the past two years, up from $25,475 in 2004. Jackson County Correctional Facility, which is county-operated, has not approved a higher pay grade for its new certified guards since 2004; the salary stands at $23,947. The $20,500 salary at Gadsden County Jail hasn’t changed since 2003. The sheriff’s office there runs the facility. Escambia County currently offers certified correctional guards $30,400 at its two detention facilities, and Franklin County Jail jumped its pay by $3,000 over last year and is now $27,500. The sheriff’s offices in all three counties run the jails. CCA-run Hernando County Jail upped its pay for certified guards this year from $28,000 to $32,000.

June 16, 2006 News Herald
Former Bay County Manager Jon Mantay joined a former county attorney and the current assistant county manager Thursday in defending themselves against an ethics complaint before an administrative law judge in Panama City. Two attorneys representing Mantay, former County Attorney Nevin Zimmerman and Assistant County Attorney Bob Majka sparred with an attorney for the Florida Commission on Ethics over the legality of a February 2000 trip the three men took to view a Corrections Corporation of America jail facility in Tennessee and a publicly run facility in Arizona. CCA, based in Tennessee, paid for the airfare and lodging of the three men and two former county commissioners. CCA has operated Bay County’s jails for 20 years, and the county was negotiating a new contract with the company during the time of the trip. The Florida Police Benevolent Association initiated the ethics complaints in July 2003, and the ethics commission in September 2004 found probable cause that Mantay, Zimmerman and Majka may have violated gift laws. Much of the attention during Thursday’s hearing before Judge Harry Hooper focused on Zimmerman and his declaration to county officials that the trip and payment arrangements were legal. Zimmerman said it was reasonable and beneficial to taxpayers for a third party, such as CCA, to pay for “fact-finding” trips that county officials take. “That (logic) is reflected in our ordinances and regulations — to have developers pay for permitting based on the time it takes county staff to process the permits,” he said. The Bay County officials that went to Tennessee and Arizona, he said, needed to see in person how other facilities were handling overcrowding and recidivism, which are problems here. There is local precedent for allowing a company to pay for such trips, Zimmerman said. In 1997, several county officials traveled to Vancouver, Canada, and Long Island, N.Y., to view facilities now run by Montenay Bay LLC. Westinghouse Corp., which wanted another company to run the Bay County waste-to energy incinerator, paid for that trip. Ethics commission attorney Linzie Bogan challenged Zimmerman’s interpretation of Florida statutes on gift laws, and he tried to discredit Zimmerman for not reviewing ethics cases between 1997 and 2000 related to acceptance of gifts. “It’s not a gift if it’s an expense related to your employment,” Zimmerman said. Bogan insisted the definition of gift was clear, but Hooper said the entire statute governing acceptance of gifts (112.312) is not clear to him. “First you have to determine if it was to their benefit. … Do people benefit from looking at a bunch of prisoners?” Hooper said. Majka said during his testimony that he was unaware CCA paid for his airfare for the trip until records were being collected at county offices three years later in connection to the ethics complaint. But he said he learned the company paid for his lodging while at the hotel. In 2000, Majka was the emergency services chief and shared responsibility with other officials in jail oversight. Hooper said not knowing CCA paid for the trip does not produce a “complete defense” for Majka. The ethics commission, however, dropped the allegations against former County Commissioners Carol Atkinson and Danny Sparks because they had no knowledge CCA covered the expenses. Sparks and former County Commissioner Richard Stewart have admitted and paid fines for violating gift laws by accepting a round of golf paid by county financial adviser Gary Askers. Majka faces the same allegation, but his attorney, Albert Gimbel, said Thursday that he didn’t know how Majka would plead to that issue. Majka declined to comment. After Hooper has had sufficient time to review the facts of the case, he will issue a recommended finding for the ethics commission to consider. Tallahassee attorney Gary Early, representing the Bay County officials, said it would be at least two months for Hooper has a recommendation.

May 23, 2006 News-Herald
Bay Medical Center is seeking payment for the treatment of four patients who were either furloughed from the Bay County Jail or booked after their stay. County and Bay Medical will meet at the hospital Wednesday to discuss the cases that date back as far as 2000. The meeting was scheduled after a circuit judge — at the county’s request — ordered that the hospital and the county attempt to resolve the conflict over payments out of court. Bay Medical filed several lawsuits seeking payment from the county in 2003. The lawsuits later were consolidated. Hospital CEO Steve Johnson requested Wednesday’s meeting in a letter May 2 to County Manager Edwin Smith. When prisoners have no means of paying for hospital treatment, Florida law places responsibility on the county where the patient was arrested. “We believe that the county cannot avoid its responsibility by obtaining temporary medical furloughs or by dropping arrestees off at the hospital before booking them into jail,” Johnson wrote in his letter to Smith. County correctional program manager Roger Hagen said the county pays about $350,000 in medical bills for inmates each year. Payment issues between hospitals and local governments are common, he said. “The judge is issuing an order. It’s legal. There’s no question about it,” Hagen said. “We’re trying to minimize the exposure to the county, but just to have them all the sudden not be under the jurisdiction of the county, now is that playing by the rules? It is playing by the legal rules, but it does create an exposure for Bay Medical.” When very sick individuals are jailed for minor crimes, Hagen said he has encouraged CCA employees to ask judges to consider their release. However, Hagen said he was unaware until Johnson raised the issue that prisoners were being released with a requirement that they return to the jail after treatment. The jail is run under contract by Corrections Corporation of America, but the county pays for patient treatment outside of the jail. However, a new contract starting in October puts the first $10,000 in medical bills per inmate on CCA’s tab. “When the new contract goes into effect, CCA is going to have the exposure up to $10,000,” Hagen said. “I’m sure they’re going to be highly motivated to encourage the judge to reduce those costs. Whether the judge goes along