YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A federal inmate pleaded guilty this week to charges he bribed guards at the private prison.
Kevin Coles, no age given, entered pleas Monday in the U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio before U.S. Judge Pamela A. Barker to charges of paying bribes to a public official and two counts of possession of contraband in prison.
Sentencing is set for Jan. 17. Coles was indicted May 17 by a federal grand jury.
The indictment in the case said that between February 2017 and January 2019 Coles was being held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility on Hubbard Road, which has a contract to house federal inmates.
At the time Coles was in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, the indictment said.
Coles is charged with arranging for a guard at the prison to be given money in exchange for allowing suboxone and tobacco into the prison.
The other two counts charge Coles with having those items while in custody.
Court records do not indicate the underlying charge or charges that Coles was being held on while he was in federal custody at that time.
