A Baldwin County jail officer is one of two men arrested last week in connection with contraband at the Law Enforcement Center (LEC), according to the lead investigator in the case.
Detention Officer Tamayo Howard was arrested and terminated April 10 and charged with violation of oath by an officer and trading with inmates without consent of warden or supervisor, Baldwin County investigator Chris Burrell said Wednesday morning. A former officer, Romeris Culver, was also arrested and similarly charged, according to Burrell.
Both men are being housed in the Wilkinson County jail, and no bond had been set as of Wednesday morning, the investigator reported, adding that a hearing on a bond could be held perhaps as soon as that day.
Burrell said the investigation into possible illegal activities in the jail at the LEC began at the end of February after Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee was provided some “information.”
“The Sheriff received some intel that there may be some contraband coming into the jail,” Burrell said. “We interviewed some people, and from that we made the two arrests.”
Burrell would not give specific details on the investigation, stating it is ongoing. He did, however, say others may be charged.
“It is possible there may be other arrests. That is pending outstanding court orders and search warrants we have out. I obtained additional search warrants last Friday and court orders yesterday (Tuesday, April 16),” he said. “I am probably going to be doing more search warrants in the coming days. It is a lengthy investigation.”
Burrell could not give a start date for the alleged illegal activities.
“There is no telling,” he acknowledged. “We tracked it back at least to December.”
Burrell said more information would be released once the investigation is completed but would not speculate on when that might be.
“It may be a week or two; it may be a month or two,” he said. “It’s according to what all this stuff shows and how deep we end up getting into it.”
Culver was recently hired as a police officer by the City of Milledgeville but was not on active duty and not a uniformed police officer, according to Police Chief Dray Swicord.
“He was in Mandate school,” Swicord said. “There were pre-requisites when I hired him that he had to meet prior to full employment, and that was one of them, to finish school. Obviously he didn’t,” the chief pointed out. “So, that’s why I terminated him; he didn’t meet the qualifications I had given him to be employed.”