Thursday, April 29, 2010
COLUMBUS (AP) — The state watchdog says high-ranking Ohio officials stopped a valid drug sting planned for the governor’s residence only to save the governor embarrassment.
The state Inspector General said in a report today that politics drove the decision by Ohio public safety director Cathy Collins-Taylor to stop the sting from happening.
The report also found numerous problems with the program that allows inmates to work at the governor’s residence in Bexley in suburban Columbus.
The report said inmates can walk unescorted outside the mansion where they received deliveries of contraband and had free access to knives, axes and other tools with no supervision.
The sting targeted a planned January drop-off of drugs by a woman whose inmate husband worked at the residence.