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| Prison nurse to serve sentence as an inmate |
| By Peoria Journal Star |
| Published: 11/24/2003 |
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A nurse accustomed to working behind bars will go back to prison next year but this time as an inmate. Leann R. Serrano was sentenced last Tuesday to 28 months in prison for attempting to smuggle drugs into Pekin's federal prison in Illinois. Serrano was arrested in April 2002 at an East Peoria restaurant after she obtained two ounces of cocaine from an undercover agent. Prison officials began their investigation in 2001 after they noticed many inmates had been involved in drug smuggling. The investigation led authorities to believe an inmate and another woman were working with Serrano. The inmate, Beau Hansen, 30, pleaded guilty earlier this year to unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and awaits sentencing. The woman, Cassandra Inez Cooper, 32, of St. Louis was found guilty in October of bringing a prohibited object into a prison and conspiring to do so. She faces up to five years on each count. Serrano, a prison nurse, was involved in a relationship with Hansen who told her to contact a "Ms. Inez" about the drugs. Prosecutors said "Ms. Inez" was Cooper. Prosecutors maintain phone records show more than 50 calls between Serrano and Cooper during the 20-month conspiracy. It is unclear through court records or trial testimony how much of any drug was smuggled in by the trio. Chief U.S. District Judge Joe B. McDade gave Serrano until Jan. 9 to report to a facility named by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The Pekin prison houses about 1,200 medium-security male inmates in a prison setting and 225 minimum-security female prisoners in an adjacent work camp on the city's south end. |
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