VETERAN NEW YORK CITY CORRECTION OFFICER CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTING TO SMUGGLE COCAINE TO AN INMATE

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a veteran New York City Correction Officer has been convicted of attempting to smuggle cocaine to an inmate at the Anna M. Kross Center at the City jail on Rikers Island.

Keith McFarlane, 44, of the Bronx, pled guilty to one count of Attempted Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the 3rd degree, a Class C felony offense. Criminal Court Judge Joseph J. Dawson immediately revoked the defendant’s bail of $25,000. The judge ordered that McFarlane be remanded pending sentencing in Part F, on Tuesday, July 29, 2003. Under the terms of the plea agreement, McFarlane will serve a term of two to six years imprisonment.

McFarlane admitted in court that on Saturday morning January 25, 2003, he delivered what he believed to be about half an ounce of cocaine to an inmate on Rikers Island. McFarlane had picked up the package of "simulated cocaine" at the end of his shift the previous day, in a parking lot next to the bridge to the jail. The package contained a powdered substance, benzocaine, that looked like cocaine. The simulated drug was given to McFarlane by an undercover detective who had pretended to be a girlfriend of the inmate to whom the contraband was delivered. Evidence against the defendant included a videotape of that meeting as well as an audio tape of a telephone conversation to set up the transaction for which McFarlane was paid $300.

McFarlane was arrested on Wednesday, July 2, 2003 following an investigation initiated by the New York City Department of Investigation’s Inspector General for the Department of Correction.

Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney Larry Hartstein is prosecuting the case.