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correction officers busted
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Steroid probe ensnarls prisons
Five corrections officers are charged as the investigation widens into some of the state's highest ranking prison officials.
By LUCY MORGAN, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief
Published September 23, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - It began in March 2003 when strange packages from Egypt were intercepted at post offices in Stark, Keystone Heights, Raiford and Macclenny, small towns in rural North Florida near many of the state's prisons.
U.S. customs and immigration officers opened the packages addressed to corrections officers and found anabolic steroids, drugs that are illegal to import and distribute in the United States.
Then law enforcement officials got lucky.
Ashley Faye Mahoney was moving her stuff out of her boyfriend's house in Keystone Heights. She called the Clay County Sheriff's Office because she wanted a deputy sheriff to stand by in case of trouble.
After the 19-year-old woman loaded her clothes in her truck and her parents' car, she invited Deputy Dennis Urban into the house to show him something.
Inside a top drawer in a bedroom Mahoney shared with Benjamin Zoltowski, a corrections officer at Florida State Prison in Raiford, was a folded wad of money and a cardboard shoe box containing gallon-sized freezer bags filled with pink and blue pills, Urban's report said.
Urban called Clay County sheriff's Detective V.A. Hall for help. Hall went to the county courthouse for a search warrant while other deputies stood by to watch the house.
That was Oct. 27, 2003.
When deputies searched the house, they found about 1,800 steroid tablets and ampules of other injectable steroids, plus a ledger listing sales made between April and June 2003.
The ledger led investigators to other state corrections officers who worked in several North Florida prisons.
Federal investigators have charged five corrections officers with distributing steroids amid a broader investigation into the actions of some of the state's highest ranking prison officials.
Some of these officers worked in prisons that were under the supervision of Allen W. Clark, a high-ranking Corrections Department official who resigned last month amid state and federal investigations into a range of improprieties in the state system.
Steroid use by corrections and law enforcement officers is becoming an increasing problem in many areas, much as it has for professional ballplayers who want to beef up their bodies. Most police agencies, including the Corrections Department, have policies that prohibit steroid use. Experts are increasingly pointing to psychological as well as physical side effects from the drugs.
Experts say prolonged high-dose use of steroids can result in "roid rage," a reaction that can lead to property damage, suicide and violence against others.
Despite reports of problems with steroids in law enforcement nationally, state prison officials conducted no internal investigation of the guards who are now caught up in the federal investigation. Corrections Secretary James V. Crosby Jr. refused to discuss it when contacted by the St. Petersburg Times.
Federal court files in Jacksonville tell the steroid tale that is being revealed by federal investigators looking at the state prison system.
Former Corrections Officer Clayton Manning was working as a personal bodyguard in Egypt in 2003 when he began shipping steroids back to friends and relatives in North Florida, documents show. Federal prosecutors say Manning made more than $73,000 in profits from the operation between 2002 and 2004.
Manning, Zoltowski and two other former prison guards have entered guilty pleas as part of agreements to testify against others. Manning and Zoltowski were sentenced to 36 months on probation while the two others, Oscar Shipley and Michael Chambliss, are scheduled for sentencing in October and November.
A fifth former officer, Marcus Hodges, faces trial in November.
Three other corrections officers and a former officer have been named as "unindicted co-conspirators."
At the center of the probes is Clark, a department veteran who suddenly resigned his position as regional director of prisons in North Florida on Aug. 30. Before being appointed to supervise 18 North Florida prisons, he was a longtime friend and protege of Corrections Secretary Crosby's, getting one promotion after another despite disciplinary problems.
Clark also worked to elect Gov. Jeb Bush and was appointed by the governor to serve on the Judicial Nominating Commission that helps select judges in six North Florida counties. He resigned from the commission Sept. 7.
In addition to the drug charges, two other corrections officers have been charged with embezzling money from the state prison recycling programs at New River. Prison officials refused this week to release copies of an internal audit of the recycling program, saying the records have been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
In an investigation separate from the federal drug and recycling probe, FDLE investigators are looking at Clark's use of employee benefit funds to purchase personal items. They also have questioned witnesses to an incident where Clark and two other corrections officers slugged and kicked the husband of another corrections officer.
Several of the corrections officers charged with distributing steroids and misusing recycling money worked for Clark when he was warden of the New River Correctional Institution at Raiford in 2003.
During interviews with witnesses, FDLE investigators indicated that Clark and other top officials at the Corrections Department are targets of related investigations. Investigators asked about Clark's involvement in an altercation at the National Guard Armory in Tallahassee earlier this year.
FDLE investigators told witnesses that a statewide grand jury is investigating Clark and others because of allegations that crimes occurred in several North Florida counties involving Corrections Department personnel.
Search warrants were served late last week at prison facilities in several North Florida counties where Clark kept vehicles and other items allegedly made by prison inmates. FDLE officials refused to comment on the warrants or their ongoing investigation.
Crosby did not return telephone calls to discuss the investigation, and Clark's attorney, Stephen Dobson, would not comment.
Researchers Cathy Wos and Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.
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**broken link removed**
Steroid probe ensnarls prisons
Five corrections officers are charged as the investigation widens into some of the state's highest ranking prison officials.
By LUCY MORGAN, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief
Published September 23, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - It began in March 2003 when strange packages from Egypt were intercepted at post offices in Stark, Keystone Heights, Raiford and Macclenny, small towns in rural North Florida near many of the state's prisons.
U.S. customs and immigration officers opened the packages addressed to corrections officers and found anabolic steroids, drugs that are illegal to import and distribute in the United States.
Then law enforcement officials got lucky.
Ashley Faye Mahoney was moving her stuff out of her boyfriend's house in Keystone Heights. She called the Clay County Sheriff's Office because she wanted a deputy sheriff to stand by in case of trouble.
After the 19-year-old woman loaded her clothes in her truck and her parents' car, she invited Deputy Dennis Urban into the house to show him something.
Inside a top drawer in a bedroom Mahoney shared with Benjamin Zoltowski, a corrections officer at Florida State Prison in Raiford, was a folded wad of money and a cardboard shoe box containing gallon-sized freezer bags filled with pink and blue pills, Urban's report said.
Urban called Clay County sheriff's Detective V.A. Hall for help. Hall went to the county courthouse for a search warrant while other deputies stood by to watch the house.
That was Oct. 27, 2003.
When deputies searched the house, they found about 1,800 steroid tablets and ampules of other injectable steroids, plus a ledger listing sales made between April and June 2003.
The ledger led investigators to other state corrections officers who worked in several North Florida prisons.
Federal investigators have charged five corrections officers with distributing steroids amid a broader investigation into the actions of some of the state's highest ranking prison officials.
Some of these officers worked in prisons that were under the supervision of Allen W. Clark, a high-ranking Corrections Department official who resigned last month amid state and federal investigations into a range of improprieties in the state system.
Steroid use by corrections and law enforcement officers is becoming an increasing problem in many areas, much as it has for professional ballplayers who want to beef up their bodies. Most police agencies, including the Corrections Department, have policies that prohibit steroid use. Experts are increasingly pointing to psychological as well as physical side effects from the drugs.
Experts say prolonged high-dose use of steroids can result in "roid rage," a reaction that can lead to property damage, suicide and violence against others.
Despite reports of problems with steroids in law enforcement nationally, state prison officials conducted no internal investigation of the guards who are now caught up in the federal investigation. Corrections Secretary James V. Crosby Jr. refused to discuss it when contacted by the St. Petersburg Times.
Federal court files in Jacksonville tell the steroid tale that is being revealed by federal investigators looking at the state prison system.
Former Corrections Officer Clayton Manning was working as a personal bodyguard in Egypt in 2003 when he began shipping steroids back to friends and relatives in North Florida, documents show. Federal prosecutors say Manning made more than $73,000 in profits from the operation between 2002 and 2004.
Manning, Zoltowski and two other former prison guards have entered guilty pleas as part of agreements to testify against others. Manning and Zoltowski were sentenced to 36 months on probation while the two others, Oscar Shipley and Michael Chambliss, are scheduled for sentencing in October and November.
A fifth former officer, Marcus Hodges, faces trial in November.
Three other corrections officers and a former officer have been named as "unindicted co-conspirators."
At the center of the probes is Clark, a department veteran who suddenly resigned his position as regional director of prisons in North Florida on Aug. 30. Before being appointed to supervise 18 North Florida prisons, he was a longtime friend and protege of Corrections Secretary Crosby's, getting one promotion after another despite disciplinary problems.
Clark also worked to elect Gov. Jeb Bush and was appointed by the governor to serve on the Judicial Nominating Commission that helps select judges in six North Florida counties. He resigned from the commission Sept. 7.
In addition to the drug charges, two other corrections officers have been charged with embezzling money from the state prison recycling programs at New River. Prison officials refused this week to release copies of an internal audit of the recycling program, saying the records have been turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
In an investigation separate from the federal drug and recycling probe, FDLE investigators are looking at Clark's use of employee benefit funds to purchase personal items. They also have questioned witnesses to an incident where Clark and two other corrections officers slugged and kicked the husband of another corrections officer.
Several of the corrections officers charged with distributing steroids and misusing recycling money worked for Clark when he was warden of the New River Correctional Institution at Raiford in 2003.
During interviews with witnesses, FDLE investigators indicated that Clark and other top officials at the Corrections Department are targets of related investigations. Investigators asked about Clark's involvement in an altercation at the National Guard Armory in Tallahassee earlier this year.
FDLE investigators told witnesses that a statewide grand jury is investigating Clark and others because of allegations that crimes occurred in several North Florida counties involving Corrections Department personnel.
Search warrants were served late last week at prison facilities in several North Florida counties where Clark kept vehicles and other items allegedly made by prison inmates. FDLE officials refused to comment on the warrants or their ongoing investigation.
Crosby did not return telephone calls to discuss the investigation, and Clark's attorney, Stephen Dobson, would not comment.
Researchers Cathy Wos and Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report.
