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Polk Deputies Arrest Corrections Officer In Inmate Drug Scam

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 15, 2008

Updated: 10/15/2008 02:37 pm

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Daniel Buckner

Polk deputies arrested a state Department of Corrections officer Tuesday, saying he falsely reported a crime last month involving smuggling marijuana to an inmate.

Daniel Buckner, 36, of Lakeland, was wired $1,000 by an inmate's wife to bring marijuana into the Central Florida Reception Center in Orlando, where Buckner works, deputies say.

Investigators say Buckner kept the money instead, didn't provide marijuana and then falsely reported the inmate's wife was threatening him.

Polk deputies charged him with one count of filing a false police report. Buckner is being investigated by the corrections department regarding the whole situation, Polk County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Eleazer said.

"We are in the process of terminating him," corrections department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger wrote in an e-mail to The Tampa Tribune.

In the Sept. 16 report, Buckner told investigators he thought a family member had wired him the $1,000. He said the inmate's wife later contacted him, asking whether he received the money. Previously, he said, the woman tried to get him to smuggle in drugs and he declined. But when she contacted him about the $1,000, Buckner said, she told him he should keep $500 and spend the other $500 on marijuana.

Buckner told deputies he didn't make a deal with her "and added that he was then threatened by the inmate's wife that she 'would get him, his job, and that his family was not safe' if he did not carry out the plan," a sheriff's office news release states.

Polk deputies worked with a corrections department inspector and determined Buckner had promised to bring drugs to the reception center but kept the $1,000 instead.

On Tuesday, Buckner told investigators he kept the money and filed a false report, deputies say. Buckner said the inmate's wife didn't threaten him and only contacted him because she wanted the money back, deputies say.

Buckner was released from jail on $500 bail.

Correctional officers do good, important work and put their lives on the line every day, Plessinger said.

"When you have one that does something like this, it tarnishes the badges that we wear," she said. "It's unconscionable. We have a great duty. This is the kind of behavior that cannot be tolerated."

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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