Ex-prison guard sentenced for smuggling items to inmates for cash
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A former North Carolina correctional officer was sentenced to five years behind bars after officials say he smuggled banned items to prisoners in a high security section of the prison.
Gregory Dustin Gouldman, 31, who worked as a guard at Polk Correctional Institution Butner, was indicted in Aug. 2015 with one count of extortion under color of official right.
Authorities said that Gouldman smuggled various items – including cellphones – to prisoners in the high security maximum control unit. Gouldman was given cash in exchange for allowing the items inside, officials said.
The investigation into Gouldman came in the wake of the 2014 kidnapping of the father of an assistant district attorney in Wake County.
Investigators say Kelvin Melton, who is serving a life sentence, orchestrated a kidnapping and attempted murder from his jail cell at the Polk Correctional Institution using a smuggled cellphone.
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