Ex-county guard sentenced on drug charge...

OFF THE WIRE
John M. Carey, 38, bought drugs from another county prison guard, officials say.
WILKES-BARRE – A former Luzerne County Correctional Facility guard was sentenced Thursday to 18 months probation on charges he purchased drugs from another prison guard.
John M. Carey, 38, of Kingston, was sentenced on a single count of possession of a controlled substance.
Carey, who pleaded guilty to the charge in November, was charged in March after an investigation by the state attorney general.
Deputy Attorney General Tim Doherty prosecuted the case. Carey was represented by attorney Ferris Webby.
According to court papers, Carey and three other prison workers were charged in a 13-month investigation.
In May 2010, Carey testified before a grand jury that he began receiving cocaine from John Gonda in 2008, and that Gonda would deliver the cocaine to Carey at his apartment.
Carey further testified that Gonda, a former guard, provided him with half grams of cocaine approximately 10 to 15 times, until Gonda was arrested in March 2009 in another case.
Gonda, 40, of White Haven, was sentenced in November 2010 to one to two years in county prison on charges relating to a $3.6 million cocaine distribution ring based in Ashley and run by members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.
Gonda was released from prison in July 2011, according to court papers, and paroled to the county’s Day Reporting Center.
Others charged in the investigation included prison nursing supervisor, Kevin Warman, 51.
Two prison guards, Jason Fierman, 36, and Christopher Walsh, 29, were also charged and are awaiting trial.
Court papers indicate Warman and Fierman provided drugs to inmates and other guards, while Walsh is accused of selling drugs to another guard, but not inmates.
Warman and Carey had previously been terminated from their jobs at the prison, while Fierman and Walsh are suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal charges, prison Warden Joseph Piazza said Thursday.
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