Defense lawyers for two inmates accused of killing a corrections officer at a Jessup prison will get access to disciplinary records and investigative files of 20 prison guards they suspect of engaging in corrupt activities, under an agreement reached yesterday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.
The attorneys for inmates Lamarr Harris and Lee Stephens say they need the documents as they try to show how a culture of violence, contraband smuggling and corruption at the now-closed Maryland House of Correction ultimately led to the death of corrections officer David McGuinn on July 25, 2006.
Among other things, defense lawyers asked for records that might show any gang affiliations of any of the officers. Gangs are considered a serious problem in the state's prisons.
Rick Binetti, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, said yesterday that the agency has seen no evidence to suggest a conspiracy between gang members and corrections staff members to smuggle contraband into the prisons or to engage in other corrupt activity.
"The contraband coming in from staff is generally just bad decision making, not some organized activity," Binetti said in an e-mail.
Binetti has said previously the agency has tightened security at entrances to prisons and that it is focusing more attention on gang activity and any relationships between known gang members and corrections staff members.
The agreement struck with the state in court yesterday requires defense lawyers to review the records behind closed doors and to keep the information confidential. Circuit Judge Paul Hackner is to decide any disputes over the relevance of documents to the legal proceedings. The defense would be allowed to copy only the pertinent ones.
Negotiations over access to documents took place largely outside of the courtroom. Yesterday's hearing served mostly to enter into the record what attorneys for the state had agreed to provide to the defense team.
The defense lawyers, whose clients face the death penalty if convicted, are to have access to disciplinary files and records of any open or closed investigations into the actions of the 20 officers dating to March 18, 2002.
Defense lawyers suggested in court papers filed last month that corrupt officers might have set up McGuinn, a by-the-book officer who was known for strictly enforcing prison rules. The lawyers quoted from an unnamed witness' statement to state police that corrupt guards "ordered the hit" on McGuinn.
But attorneys for the state said in later filings that the claim was made by an inmate who was just repeating what he allegedly had been told by another inmate. The agency's attorney said the inmate witness tried to get investigators to intervene on his behalf in unrelated matters.
Defense lawyers for Harris and Stephens have signaled that they intend to build a key part of their defense on the corrupt environment that existed at the Maryland House of Correction.
State corrections officials acknowledge that some officers smuggle into the prisons prohibited items such as cell phones, tobacco and drugs - because they have a personal relationship with an inmate or in exchange for cash.
Last year, 167 corrections officers and support staff people were reprimanded or suspended for contraband-related violations and 20 were fired, according to Binetti.
greg.garland@baltsun.com