Guard is charged with giving ammo to inmate

Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2000 | 10:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A guard at the Ely State Prison has been charged with smuggling in bullets and a handcuffs key to convicts after an inmate once considered one of the most dangerous in the Nevada prison system apparently supplied information.

Officer Erik Jacobs, who has worked for the prison for nearly three years, was arrested Friday in Ely on five counts of furnishing a weapon or facsimile to a prisoner and two counts of aiding a prisoner to escape.

Jacobs is charged with bringing five .25-caliber bullets into the prison and giving an inmate a handcuff key and other items to help in an escape. Bail has been set at $30,000 for Jacobs.

In July inmate David "Bang Bang" Wayne told prison officials he had evidence that a corrupt guard smuggled in drugs, a gun, bullets and handcuff keys to prisoners in exchange for money. At the time he did not reveal the name and sought to bargain with prison officials for better treatment.

Prison Director Jackie Crawford, who announced the arrest Tuesday, said an investigation was started immediately after officials received information about possible violations. Those inmates who were the target of the probe were placed in isolation, and security was tightened.

Crawford and prison spokesman Glen Whorton declined to say if Wayne was the original and only source of the information. Crawford said the investigation is continuing. "There are some things we can't divulge," she said.

Wayne, 57, was originally sentenced to prison for wounding a bartender in a robbery in Washoe County. He subsequently staged three hostage-taking incidents at the prison, escaped at least once from custody and was involved in another attempt.

The current investigation started when Wayne relayed the information about a corrupt guard to an old prison buddy, Frank A. Sweeney of Demarest, N.J., who in turn told prison officials. Sweeney also supplied the information to the Sun.

Sweeney said Wayne did not trust the prison mail system to get his information to authorities, so he used Sweeney as an intermediary.