Source: United States Department of Justice News
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A former corrections officer at the Jackson County Detention Center was sentenced in federal court today for taking bribes to smuggle illegal drugs to inmates of the facility.
Daniel Coach, 27, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs to one year and two months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Coach to forfeit to the government $3,631, which represents the amount of proceeds he personally obtained as a result of the offense.
On Dec. 3, 2021, Coach pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to smuggle contraband into the Jackson County Detention Center and provide that contraband to inmates of the center from March 2020 to March 2021.
Coach admitted that, while he was employed as a corrections officer at the detention center, he took bribes to smuggle contraband into inmates at the center. Coach used the mobile phone application Cash App to accept the bribe payments for contraband. According to court documents, Coach successfully smuggled oxycodone, K2, fentanyl, Percocet, and ecstasy to inmates at the detention center.
On March 3, 2021, following a telephone conversation with an undercover police officer posing as an associate of an unindicted co-conspirator, Coach took a bribe of $100 in exchange for his promise to smuggle OxyContin pills to the unindicted co-conspirator, an inmate at the detention center.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rudolph R. Rhodes IV. It was investigated by the FBI and the Jackson County, Mo., Sheriff’s Department.