OFF THE WIRE
WILKES-BARRE – A Luzerne County prison guard was acquitted Wednesday of drug-related charges in a case in which prosecutors claimed he sold cocaine to a fellow guard.
Christopher Walsh, 29, of Pittston, was found not guilty of one count each of delivery of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance after a Luzerne County jury deliberated for about an hour.
Prosecutors withdrew a charge of criminal conspiracy.
Walsh’s family embraced after the jury was ushered out, while the prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Tim Doherty, shook hands with Walsh and his attorney, Michael Butera.
Walsh had been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the charges, prison Warden Joseph Piazza has previously said. Piazza said Wednesday he will discuss with the prison’s lawyer and the Attorney General’s Office what the next step will be regarding Walsh’s employment.
Walsh was charged in March 2011 along with three other prison workers after an investigation. After hearing testimony from a number of witnesses before a grand jury, prosecutors said Walsh allegedly sold cocaine to corrections officers a number of times.
Butera said Wednesday in his closing argument that Walsh never sold or gave cocaine to anyone.
Butera said that for jurors to convict his client, they would have to believe the testimony of former fellow guards John Gonda and Joseph Ciampi, who were admitted drug users. Butera called them “snitches” for the government.
The attorney said Ciampi initiated every recorded conversation with his client, and Ciampi was the one “running to a lawyer” when he was served a subpoena to appear before the grand jury.
“If you aren’t guilty, why do you run to a lawyer and pay $3,000?” Butera asked jurors. “Those are the actions of a guilty man.”
Ciampi had resigned from his guard position at the prison and was not charged in the investigation.
Butera also told jurors that prosecutors had no cocaine to show jurors as evidence because Walsh never had any.
“We’ve never had a chance to test cocaine because (prosecutors) don’t have it. It doesn’t exist. … Where is the cocaine?” Butera said.
Doherty, who presented the testimony of federal agents as well as Ciampi and Gonda during the trial, said during his closing argument there was sufficient evidence to convict Walsh.
“This is a case about public trust … of public corruption,” Doherty said.
Doherty said both Gonda and Ciampi walked away from the case with tarnished reputations and embarrassment, having nothing to lose or to gain.
“Gonda himself was imprisoned at the hen house he was supposed to be watching (when he was a guard),” Doherty said.
Gonda, 40, of White Haven, was sentenced in November 2010 to one to two years in county prison on charges relating to a $3.6 million cocaine distribution ring based in Ashley and run by members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.
He was released from prison in July 2011, according to court papers, and paroled to the county’s Day Reporting Center.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Jail_guard_acquitted_in_alleged_drug_sale_03-08-2012.html
