A former corrections officer at the Jackson County Detention Center pleaded guilty in federal court to smuggling contraband cell phones and other items to inmates at the Jackson County Detention Center.
Andre Lamonte Dickerson, 26, of Kansas City, Mo., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough to two counts of using a telephone in furtherance of the unlawful activity of acceding to corruption, related to a public servant taking a bribe in return for violating his legal duty.
By pleading guilty, Dickerson admitted that he told a confidential informant that he would smuggle two packs of cigarettes, a cell phone and a cell phone charger to an inmate in the detention center for $500. Dickerson met the informant at a Church’s Fried Chicken restaurant on June 2, 2017, where he received the payment and the contraband items.
The next day, June 3, 2017, Dickerson entered the inmate’s cell and put the contraband on the bed. They engaged in a conversation regarding potential future contraband transactions. Dickerson asked if the inmate would be interested in paying him a monthly fee of $2,500. In exchange, Dickerson would ensure he would be the only inmate on the fifth floor to receive contraband cigarettes, narcotics, and telephones. Other inmates would then shop through him for their contraband.
The inmate smoked one of the packs of cigarettes and exchanged the second pack of cigarettes with other inmates for food from the commissary. On the same day, detention center personnel searched his cell and found the phone and phone charger.
On June 18, 2017, a corrections officer found Dickerson’s cell phone in the fifth-floor control station. Text messages contained information recording drug deals between Dickerson and inmates within the Jackson County Detention Center.
Dickerson was arrested on June 27, 2017. At the time of his arrest, Dickerson had two cell phones in his possession while he was on duty in the inmate area of the detention center. Corrections officers are not allowed to have cell phones in their possession while on duty and in the areas of the detention center where inmates are housed.
In a separate but related case, another former corrections officer at the Jackson County Detention Center, Jalee Caprice Fuller, 30, of Independence, Mo., has also pleaded guilty. Fuller admitted that she conspired with others – including co-defendant Carlos Laron Hughley, 32, of Kansas City, an inmate at the Jackson County Detention Center – to smuggle contraband to inmates between May 2 and June 26, 2017. Fuller also admitted that she actually smuggled contraband into the Jackson County Detention Center and delivered the contraband to an inmate.
Hughley, as well as co-defendants Marion Lorenzo Byers, also known as “Cuddy,” 36, and Janikkia Lashay Carter, 36, both of Kansas City, have pleaded guilty.
Under the terms of today’s plea agreement, Dickerson will be sentenced to one year and four months in federal prison without parole. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
