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| Lehigh County Corrections Officer Gets Prison Time |
| By Allentown Morning Call |
| Published: 03/29/2002 |
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A former corrections officer at Lehigh County Prison was sentenced to prison Thursday for smuggling marijuana into the county jail. Jimmy Lee Gross, 42, of Allentown, was sentenced to 12 to 24 months in prison by Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg. Gross pleaded guilty to possession of contraband and possession of drug paraphernalia in January. He also was sentenced to a year's probation and fined $1,000. His attorney, Emmanuel H. Dimitriou of Reading, had argued for probation only, but Steinberg refused, saying that Gross violated the trust of county residents and his fellow prison officers. ''This is not just something to sluff off,'' Steinberg said. Gross used an altered chewing tobacco canister to bring marijuana to an inmate at the prison in exchange for cash in October 1999, police said. Before sentencing Gross, Steinberg heard from his wife, his mother and his pastor. All said that Gross, who doesn't have a prior record, had made a change for the better since his arrest. ''This is the best thing that ever happened to my family,'' said Stephanie Gross, his wife of 19 years. ''He's the husband that I've always wanted to have.'' The Rev. Thomas Wright III of Grace Deliverance Baptist Church in Bethlehem said he believes the changes in Gross are permanent. ''He now has a tremendous zeal for the Gospel,'' Wright said. Steinberg asked Wright if Gross had ''a fox-hole conversion.'' Wright, a Vietnam veteran, said he did not, because a man in a fox hole ''knows he doesn't want to be in a fox hole.'' Gross, a corrections officer for 11 years, blamed a marijuana addiction for his troubles. ''I'm guilty,'' said Gross, who had been out on $75,000 bail and was working as a janitor. ''I just want the old Jimmy to go away.'' With Gross's in-laws and friends filling two rows in the courtroom, Steinberg said, ''A prison can't function with the inmates running the institution.'' Detective Sgt. Stephen Mould of Allentown police investigated the case. A former prison officer, Mould said in court that Gross was at the point where he was going to be asked to bring stronger narcotics, such as cocaine or heroin, into the prison, or possibly weapons. Mould said he believed Gross smuggled drugs into the prison ''more than he has admitted to.'' Ed Sweeney, director of corrections for Lehigh County, urged the judge to sentence Gross to prison because he violated the trust placed in him by the county. ''It's paramount that the sentence be severe enough to send a message to those who would cross that line at some point,'' Sweeney said. Gross was handcuffed and taken to prison. Sweeney said that, for security reasons, he would consider sending Gross to a prison other than Lehigh County's. |
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