Security tightened at Ely prison

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Security has been tightened at the state's maximum-security prison in Ely after a one-time notorious inmate said he has evidence that a corrupt guard smuggled in drugs, a gun, bullets and handcuff keys in exchange for money from convicts.

Prisoner David "Bang Bang" Wayne has the reputation as a good jailhouse lawyer, an escape artist and a manipulator who has a dangerous past.

Acting as his own lawyer, Wayne, now 57, beat the state attorney general's office in criminal trials three times. He staged three hostage-taking incidents at the prison. He has escaped at least once from custody and was involved in another attempt.

But whatever his past, prison officials are taking his story seriously.

Prison Inspector General Rod Countryman says his office has talked to Wayne several times and has an "active investigation" under way at Ely. He said Prison Warden E.K. McDaniel has taken "special precautions" at a prison that already has tight security.

Wayne, who has now been placed in isolation, wants a favor in return for giving up the information about the allegedly corrupt guard. And the inmate isn't giving up any details until he's assured of getting some benefit.

Countryman said it's not possible for his office to grant the favor, which he didn't reveal. But he confirmed Wayne would like to be transferred to another prison.

This most recent incident started when Wayne told an old prison buddy, Frank A. Sweeney of Demarest, N.J., in a telephone conversation about the guard introducing contraband into the prison. Sweeney did time in a federal prison for computer fraud and met Wayne at a medical facility in Missouri.

Sweeney called Wayne an "adept lawyer" who helped him prepare papers that reduced his prison term. And the two have kept in touch the last 20 years. Sweeney sends him money and law books.

Sweeney wrote the inspector general with the Wayne information, saying he was asked to be an intermediary because Wayne was reluctant to use the prison mails. Sweeney said Wayne would be willing to take a lie detector test. And Sweeney told Countryman he could attest for the integrity of Wayne, who "is not a liar."

Sweeney said he received a letter from Prison Director Jackie Crawford that suggested Wayne is a manipulator. And he thinks Countryman is "stonewalling" any investigation. Since his letter, Sweeney said Wayne has been placed in super isolation, without telephone and other privileges. But he has written letters.

Wayne was originally sentenced to the Nevada prison for the January 1970 shooting of a bartender in a robbery in Reno. He received a 20-year term for attempted murder. That term has since expired and he's now doing a life term after being judged a habitual criminal.

He was before the state Parole Board in June seeking release. But he was denied and cannot re-apply until September 2003.

Shortly after Wayne arrived in prison, he was in trouble. He was charged with possessing a gun in his locker, of taking three guards hostage for eight hours and in taking 10 guards and a nurse hostage in an unsuccessful escape try. As his own lawyer, he beat the state attorney general's office in all three trials.

But then he was convicted of taking a guard and two nurses hostage at knifepoint in the prison infirmary, where he was being treated for a self-inflicted wound in October 1980. In this incident, he rigged a trip wire so scalpels were dangling above the eyes of one of the nurses. And he threatened to kill the woman if prison officials tried a rescue. He eventually surrendered and no one was hurt.

After his conviction in Nevada, he was sent to the federal prison system because of his history of violence at the state prison. While in the federal prison, he was caught with liquor in his cell. He was eventually returned to Nevada and is in Ely, which has the highest security of any of Nevada's prisons.

Before his Nevada prison term, Wayne was in the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Canada for robbery. And in one incident, he took the prison psychologist hostage. And while he was in Reno prior to arriving at the state prison, he escaped from the Washoe County jail.