Minn. Officer Admits Providing Heroin

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By St. Paul Pioneer Press

Published: 06/27/2003

A corrections officer charged with third-degree murder has admitted to indirectly providing heroin to an inmate, who overdosed and died.
On June 20, Anthony Pitchford acknowledged bringing drugs into Stillwater Prison on Sept. 17 and giving the drugs to inmate Corey Bradford, a childhood friend. The admission was part of a plea agreement on a second-degree drug charge.
Pitchford, 35, from Minneapolis, had been charged with one count of third-degree murder and one count of second-degree controlled substance crime in connection with an inmate's death. Under the deal, prosecutors will drop the third-degree murder charge.
Pitchford could serve 48 months in prison for the $300 heroin sale, which led to the death of inmate Spencer Robinson on Sept. 18.
Robinson, 38, a convicted murderer, had been at the prison since 1994. He was found dead in his cell Sept. 18. Investigators found three grams of heroin and two grams of cocaine in his cell, according to the criminal complaint filed against Pitchford.
Robinson died of opiate levels 'well beyond the toxic level,' the complaint said.
Staff at the prison used Robinson's phone records to find a witness who admitted having gone to Detroit to receive about 7 grams of heroin. The witness said Robinson arranged the handoff of a package wrapped in black electrical tape to Pitchford. That package contained heroin, the complaint said.
The witness said he gave Pitchford the package of drugs and money.
Inmate Bradford told investigators that Pitchford threw a package wrapped in black electrical tape into his cell on Sept. 17. Bradford delivered it to Robinson's cell.
Pitchford is expected to serve 48 months in prison under the plea agreement, depending on what Washington County Judge Gary Meyer determines at his sentencing, which is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 25.
The prison fired Pitchford soon after he was arrested, Warden David Crist said Friday afternoon.
'There's zero tolerance for anybody smuggling drugs into our correctional facilities, not just staff,' Crist said. The Pitchford case 'casts a stain,' on an honest, dedicated group of professionals, he added.

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