Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A Cameron man was sentenced to 15 months in prison for bribery of a public official, according to a December 9, 2021 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of North Carolina. Casey Covington, 46, pleaded guilty to the charge on July 8, 2021.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Covington was employed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina (FCI Butner) as a correctional officer when he was bribed by three inmates to smuggle contraband into the prison. “Specifically, from 2019 to 2020, the inmates, Christopher Lee Davis, Antonio Demond Byers, and Robert Henry Huitt, used their contacts outside the prison to pay Covington over $31,000,” stated the release.

“A review of Covington’s financial records revealed the payments which originated from the inmates outside contacts,” the release continued. “In exchange, Covington used his position as a correctional officer to smuggle marijuana, cell phones, alcohol and tobacco into FCI Butner and then deliver the contraband to Davis, Byers, and Huitt. In May 2020, authorities at Butner recovered two cell phones and marijuana from the cell shared by Davis and Byers. Later in October 2020, officers recovered a cell phone from inmate Huitt.”

On July 21, 2021, Huitt pleaded guilty to possession of contraband in prison and was sentenced to an additional six months’ imprisonment consecutive to the sentence he is currently serving.

On September 21, 2021, Byers pleaded guilty to possession of contraband in prison and aiding and abetting; sentencing is pending.

On October 6, 2021, Davis pleaded guilty to possession of contraband in prison and aiding and abetting; sentencing is pending.

Michael F. Easley Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after sentencing by Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II. The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Office of Internal Affairs investigated the case and Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Dodson prosecuted.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.