Lawyer charged after smuggling binders of drugs to client in prison
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A Baltimore lawyer has been arrested and charged with smuggling drugs to a client in a Maryland prison.
Steven Thurman Mitchell brought two binders to his client, Mandel Brown, during a visit to the Roxbury Correctional Institution on Friday and attempted to leave without them, according to a Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services news release provided to the Baltimore Sun and Herald-Mail Media.
Correctional officers searched the binders and found 125 strips of the controlled narcotic suboxone, a drug that’s often used to treat opioid dependency.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Mitchell faces four misdemeanor charges related to the possession and delivery of a controlled, dangerous substance to a place of confinement. His trial is set for Aug. 21 at the Washington County District Court in Hagerstown.
“I have an attorney and look forward to my day in court,” Mitchell told the Baltimore Sun.
According to the Herald-Mail Media, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has pledged to crack down on prison corruption. Nearly 200 correctional officers, inmates and other citizens have been arrested or prosecuted since 2015.
“Those that will seek to endanger our staff and the population we are responsible for keeping safe by introducing drugs into our system will be identified, caught and prosecuted,” Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Robert L. Green said in the news release that was provided after Mitchell was arrested.
