Guard arrested in prison drug case

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2003 | 11:28 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A yearlong drug smuggling operation at the Southern Nevada Women's Prison in North Las Vegas has been broken up with the arrest of a guard and another woman, the state Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.

The department said it arrested Constance Edwards, 33, a correctional officer at the prison, as she was trying to bring two balloons of heroin into the center, which is managed by the private Corrections Corp. of America.

This was the second time in recent months a corrections officer at the prison has been under suspicion. A female prison inmate became pregnant during the summer and identified a corrections officer as the father. The case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed. The staff member resigned.

In the drug smuggling case, Corrections Corp. officials notified the state Department of Corrections, which began looking into the allegation with the state Division of Investigations a month ago.

The department said inmate Valerie Moore was receiving heroin and cocaine from Edwards, who was getting the drugs from former inmate Karen Matthews.

According to investigators, Matthews arranged to supply the drugs to Edwards, who would then get them into the prison and provide them to Moore. Howard Skolnik, assistant director of the state Department of Corrections, said the investigation is continuing whether Moore distributed the drugs to other inmates.

The department said Edwards, a prison employee for about two years, received between $50 and $200 per delivery and she was involved in the operation for a year.

After the arrest, investigators gained a search warrant for the home of Matthews, who also used the name Karen Davis, on Jennydiane Drive near Lamb Boulevard and Vegas Valley Drive, and they said they discovered evidence of the conspiracy.

Edwards and Matthews were charged with introducing a controlled substance into a correctional center and conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Edwards was also charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Moore will face disciplinary charges at the prison for her alleged part in the operation. Moore, 44, is serving a life term with the possibility of parole for a conviction of second-degree murder. She has been in prison since June 1996 and is eligible for parole in June 2005.

Lt. Matthew Alberto of the state Investigations Division is continuing to try to determine whether other people in the prison were involved in the smuggling.

So far, he said, there is no evidence that money was paid by inmates inside the prison to finance the drug trafficking. He said Matthews "had another source of income to purchase the drugs for the prison and for herself."

Matthews has an extensive criminal background and was a cellmate of Moore before Matthews was released. Alberto said Matthews was in prison the last time for a drug offense.

Evidence seized at Matthews' residence included drug paraphernalia and documents showing when the correctional officer got paid, Alberto said.

Skolnik said this was the first case in a number of years of a correctional officer in Southern Nevada being arrested for smuggling drugs into the prison. He said there have been more of these incidents in Northern Nevada than in Clark County.