Two former corrections officers from the Golden Grove Correctional Facility on St. Croix pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in separate cases, U.S. Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced.
Kalomi Kambui, 40, of St. Croix pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a controlled substance. According to Sharpe, on June 12, 2013, Kambui, then a correction officer at Golden Grove, received what she believed to be ecstasy pills from an undercover agent, along with payment, for the purpose of delivering it to an inmate housed at the facility.
Ecstasy is a street name for the controlled substance MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine). The substance was not ecstasy, however, and Kambui did not make the delivery but was arrested.
Kambui faces as much as five years in prison for the offense and a fine of as much as $250,000. A sentencing date has been set for Jan. 19.
In the second, unrelated case, Abdul Robinson, 39, of St. Croix pleaded guilty to providing contraband in prison and conflict of interest charges.
Sharpe said that on April 5, 2013, Robinson, then a correction officer at Golden Grove, received a cellular telephone along with $100 from an undercover agent and agreed to deliver the telephone to an inmate housed at the facility. He delivered the telephone to the inmate who, unbeknownst to Robinson, was working as a government informant.
According to the news release announcing the plea, allowing an inmate to possess contraband such as a cellphone was contrary to Robinson’s duty, as was delivering contraband to inmates.
Robinson faces as much as one year of imprisonment and a fine of as much as $100,000 for the offense. He also faces a mandatory minimum period of imprisonment of one year, to a maximum of five years and a fine of up to $5,000, for the conflict of interest offense. Sentencing was slated for Jan. 19.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated both cases. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alphonso Andrews Jr. is prosecutor.