A federal grand jury has indicted a former Home man and a federal detainee housed at the Indiana County Jail, accusing them of working a contraband cellphone smuggling scheme at the jail in the summer of last year.
The indictment was returned on Friday and unsealed today (Monday). 25-year-old Alex Lewis, a former corrections officer, is charged with accepting multiple bribes from 30-year-old Rashon Richardson in exchange for smuggling multiple cellphones into the jail for use by Richardson and other federal detainees. Richardson was being housed at the jail under terms of a contract between Indiana County and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Both Lewis and Richardson are charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery of a public official, and use of a facility in interstate commerce in aid of bribery. In addition, Lewis is charged with extortion under color of official right.
According to the indictment, the scheme took place between June and August of last year. Richardson allegedly used an intermediary outside of the jail to meet with Lewis and pay the bribes in cash and, on one occasion, via a $400 payment to Lewis’s CashApp account.
The law provides for a maximum sentence of not more than five years in prison for conspiracy, fifteen years for the bribery charges, five years for the use of facilities charge, and – for Lewis – twenty years for extortion under color of official right. The maximum fine is $250,000.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Go. Olshan. The FBI conducted the investigation, with the assistance of state police and the Indiana County Jail.
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