Ex-Cuyahoga County jail guard who took bribes to smuggle drugs to locked-up Heartless Felons sentenced to prison

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge on Tuesday sentenced two former Cuyahoga County jail guards who took bribes from gang members to smuggle drugs, cellphones and other items into the jail to serve time behind bars.

Stephen Thomas, who attended the hearing via a live video feed, sobbed and held his head in his hands after Common Pleas Court Judge William McGinty told him he must report to the courthouse by 10 a.m. Friday to begin to serve his two-year sentence.

McGinty during a separate virtual hearing on Tuesday sentenced ex-corrections officer Marvella Sullivan to spend 60 days in jail and serve 18 months on probation for smuggling marijuana to an inmate in the jail in exchange for $60 and a purse.

The two previously pleaded guilty as part of an investigation led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office into smuggling within the jail. Thomas pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts of bribery and theft in office and a misdemeanor count of illegal conveyance. Sullivan pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and attempted bribery charges. Prosecutors, in exchange for the pleas, dropped a racketeering charge and drug trafficking charges against Thomas.

Two inmates who pleaded guilty to participating in the ring also received sentences Tuesday. McGinty ordered Lamar Speights, a member of the Heartless Felons gang who pleaded guilty to bribery, money laundering and illegal conveyance, to serve an additional 30 months in prison on top of a 16-year sentence he is serving for a smash-and-grab spree. Alexander Foster, who pleaded guilty to bribery and obstructing justice, received 18 months of probation but will have to serve a four-year prison sentence if he violates his probation.

The judge told Thomas that he violated his duty as a corrections officer to protect the inmates under his watch and placed his fellow corrections and the public in harm’s way by giving cellphones to dangerous inmates. Even though Thomas had no criminal record and did not pose a risk of offending again because he resigned from his job as a corrections officer, McGinty said he settled on sending Thomas to prison to deter other corrections officers.

“The citizens of the state of Ohio and the inmates in the Cuyahoga County Jail were put at risk by your actions,” McGinty said. “That risk was caused while you were in the position of public trust.”

Assistant Ohio Attorney General Matthew Meyer asked McGinty to sentence Thomas to the maximum sentence of seven and a half years in prison to send a message that “bribery in Cuyahoga County will be punished swiftly and severely.

“A less severe sentence will send a tacit message that corruption within the ranks of the Cuyahoga County corrections officers is not a serious matter,” Meyer said. “Criminals thrive on society’s indulgence, and Mr. Thomas should not get that indulgence today based on the severity of his conduct.”

Thomas’ attorney, Charles Tyler, said that Thomas maintains he never smuggled drugs into the jail and told McGinty that sending Thomas to prison would waste the resources the state would spend to house him.

Tyler, who said he is also Thomas’ pastor, argued that Thomas’ behavior reflected poor judgment rather than bad character. Thomas’ former basketball coach at East High School in Akron recalled Thomas as a hard worker who never swore on the court. A longtime family friend said Thomas had a strong family who would support him if McGinty sentenced him to probation.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Thomas apologized to other corrections officers and the sheriff’s department, as well as his family and the public, and asked McGinty to give him a chance at probation.

“I will never stand before you or in any other court as a criminal defendant,” Thomas said.

Yost’s Office handled the case as a special prosecutor under an agreement with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office. O’Malley recused his office from investigations involving the county jail and corruption in county government in early 2019.

The investigation into the smuggling ring began after an inmate overdosed on fentanyl in his cell in January 2019. The inmate, who required two doses of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone to survive, later told investigators that he got the drugs from another inmate, Kenneth “KO” Evans, a Heartless Felons member who in turn said he got the drugs from Thomas.

Investigators received an anonymous tip a few months later that Foster called people from his jail cell on a smuggled cellphone and set up a surprise search of his cell, but did not find the phone.

Authorities arrested Thomas inside the jail after sheriff’s detectives watched security video of him delivering an inmate contraband wrapped in an orange jail uniform, according to court records.

Thomas was a member of the jail’s Special Response Team, a SWAT-like unit in which officers were free to roam the jail’s pods rather than being assigned to a specific area within the jail. Investigators believed Thomas exploited his ability to move throughout the jail to carry out his smuggling.

Thomas admitted to detectives that he participated in a smuggling ring that involved Heartless Felons and other corrections officers. However, he denied smuggling any drugs, according to a transcript of his interrogation filed in court. He said he only smuggled in Tylenol, cellphone batteries and vape pens to two different inmates. Thomas also admitted that he brought Foster the cellphone and then tipped him off about the search so officers would not find it, according to court records.

During that time, another anonymous tipster called the sheriff’s department and reported that Speights was selling marijuana behind bars and that Sullivan was bringing him the drugs. A search of Speights’ cell turned up the phone, and investigators found several flirtatious and sexual text messages between Speights and Sullivan and one exchange in which Speights orchestrated a drug pick-up between Sullivan and his brother outside the Justice Center while Sullivan was in uniform. Speights sent Sullivan photographs of himself packaging marijuana in balloons later that evening, according to court records.

Sullivan resigned after investigators found Speights’ phone.

Detectives interviewed several inmates about the ring including Brico Allen, a known Heartless Felons member who was awaiting trial on charges connected to the carjacking of an Oakwood police cruiser. Allen, who was not charged as part of the ring, gave investigators a handwritten list of several corrections officers he said were part of the ring. None of those officers aside from Thomas faced charges.

The smuggling ring bust came when the jail was under heavy scrutiny. The U.S. Marshals just months earlier released a report detailing widespread constitutional violations and sagging conditions after several of what would turn out to be nine inmates died inside the jail in less than a year.

Thomas and Sullivan are two of a dozen jail officers and officials to be charged as part of the investigation into the jail. Former warden Eric Ivey resigned after pleading guilty to criminal charges that accused him of covering up an investigation into an inmate’s drug overdose and then lying to investigators about his reasoning for doing so. Former jail director Kenneth Mills is awaiting trial on charges that accuse him of negligently mismanaging the jail to the point where conditions led to the inmates’ deaths. He has pleaded not guilty.

Six more corrections officers have pleaded guilty as part of the investigation, and one was acquitted by a jury.

Thomas and Sullivan join four other corrections officers to be sentenced to time behind bars as part of the investigation.