THREE CRIMINAL GUARDS ARRESTED
IF YOU DON'T SWALLOW THE CRUMBS, YOU CAN GET THE WHOLE PIE.
NOTE: There is a difference between an officer and a guard. Perhaps an FDOC nurse put it best: "If some of these people weren't wearing the uniform, they'd be gangs on the street."
Don't celebrate too soon. These three warrants may be part of the damage control Bush, Crosby et al have drummed up, intended to pacify our desire for the good guys to win. Well, I refuse to eat Crosby's crumbs and I hope you do too.
These warrants and these men's brawls are a mere nothing in the big picture. The Florida Department of 'Corrections' is so filled with uniformed gangs and thugs and paid criminals (nicknamed "The Raiford Mafia") that warrants over a piddling fight at one of their drunken parties is either just a beginning or a downright insult to taxpayers.
These guys, among other things, smuggled drugs into prison, stole big money from the taxpayers, privately mishandled the inmates in their custody, and allowed nepotism and favoritism to run rampant. Taxpayers and officers of the department deserve more of a cleanup than this. There really should be hundreds of warrants being served.
The guards in the FDOC are creating a dangerous situation for... and low moral among... those who want to give us a professional job for a fair paycheck.
Every time you read an article about the prisons, you should write a short letter to the editor or reporter and send a copy to James Crosby expressing your desire for a thorough housecleaning in the Florida Department of Corruptions!Now is not the time to back off and go silent. Demand the whole pie. Otherwise you'll continue paying for crumbs while officials and administrators and their protected group of criminals smile smugly over their steak and ale.
Kay Lee
kaylee1@charter.net
2683 Rockcliff Road Southeast
Atlanta, Georgia 30316
404-212-0690
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Making The Walls Transparent
https://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke
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Florida State Prison Forum
http://www.floridastateprison.net
Back Published Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Ex-DOC Official Charged With Battery
Warrants are issued for Allen Clark and two co-workers over a fight in April.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051109/NEWS/511090346/1004
By Joe Follick jfollick@tampatrib.com & Karen Voyles voylesk@gvillesun.com
NYT Regional Newspapers
TALLAHASSEE -- An arrest warrant has been issued for Allen Clark, the former high-ranking Department of Corrections official at the center of a sprawling state and federal investigation.
But the warrant is not for the myriad allegations of steroid abuse, embezzlement of funds, and improper use of state inmates and material being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Instead, the Tallahassee Police Department issued the warrants for Clark and two of his close co-workers on charges of felony battery related to an April fight at a softball banquet at the National Guard Armory in the capital.
On Tuesday, Tallahassee police, with assistance from state and local officers, arrested Apalachee Correctional Institution Col. Richard Frye, 36, and ACI Major James Bowen, 32, in Jackson County.
As of Tuesday evening, Clark had not been located and police had labeled him "at large" and asked for public assistance in locating him.
But a DOC official said Tuesday evening that Clark was expected to turn himself in by midnight.
Clark, a high school dropout and a close friend of DOC secretary James V. Crosby Jr., quit his $94,000-a-year job as the director of the state's Panhandle prisons on Aug. 30 with no explanation.
The DOC had placed Bowen and Frye on paid leave late last month.
Citing an ongoing internal investigation, DOC officials gave no reason for the suspensions. Contacted late Tuesday afternoon, Crosby wanted more time before commenting on the arrests.
"This all happened so fast today (Tuesday) that I won't have a comment until tomorrow when we have been able to get all the information," Crosby said.
DOC spokesman Robby Cunningham said Bowen and Frye will continue on paid administrative leave for the time being.
"This is not our investigation. We are cooperating with the law enforcement agencies," Cunningham said. "Their status will remain the same until we can look into the information available."
It is latest fall for Clark, a controversial figure who was well-known to Florida politicians as a go-to organizer for political events in the rural North Florida area dominated by state prisons.
After beginning with the department in 1988, Clark was promoted rapidly, his only setback coming in a 60-day suspension in 1994 when a DOC investigation found Clark had kicked inmates in their heads and had beaten them with handcuffs.
In 1999, internal investigations alleged Clark had lied to investigators who were responding to complaints that Clark had used inmates to perform unapproved renovations to state-provided living quarters.
The investigations also alleged that Clark threatened other employees if they protested a fiefdom of employee-funded softball teams.
DOC officials later found Clark not guilty of those charges. He would move on to become warden of Florida State Prison before being named the Region I director by Crosby in 2004.
According to FDLE and Tallahassee Police records, the fight that led to the arrests occurred nearly six months ago at an April 1 softball banquet hosted by the Florida Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Late in the evening, James Edward O'Bryan, a former correctional officer, accidentally slipped in a puddle of beer and vomit, knocking down a woman who worked for Clark. Clark then straddled O'Bryan and punched him. Bowen and Frye quickly joined in the melee, punching and kicking O'Bryan, according to reports.So far three guards arrested are still on paid leave:
Bradley Tunnell, 30, a correctional services administrator at DOC Region I offices in Sneads. He's the son of FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell, the man overseeing the sprawling investigation of the DOC. Bradley Tunnell was hired by the department in February 2004 and is paid $41,440 in his position.
Apalachee Correctional Institution Col. Richard Frye, 36. He was hired in March 1993 and worked with Clark at New River Correctional Institution before joining Clark in Sneads last year. He is paid $53,222,
ACI Major James Bowen, 32, who is paid $43,848 in his position. He was hired by the department in April 1992 and also moved to Sneads with Clark and Frye. MORE ARTICLES SAME STORY:
3 workers at DOC face dismissal
By Joe Follick jfollick@tampatrib.com and
Karen Voyles voylesk@gvillesun.com
Sun staff writersTwo ACI officials arrested; another at large
by Deborah Buckhalter dbuckhalter@jcfloridan.com
Jackson County FloridanPrison officers facing charges
DOC employees arrested in beating of former co-workerbcotterell@tallahassee.com
Democrat Political Editor2 More Corrections Officials Arrested
By Steve Bousquet bousquet@sptimes.com
St Pete Times Staff Writer
Published November 9, 2005Former prison official turns himself in on fight charge
By Associated Press
Published November 10, 2005
See FDOC PARTY TOWN
MTWT PRISON WORKERS
