Jail Custodian Accused of Smuggling Drugs to Inmates Pleads to Lesser Charge

By Bay City News Service:

A San Mateo County jail custodian accused of smuggling drugs to inmates last year pleaded to a lesser charge Tuesday after key prosecution witnesses refused to testify, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

Michael De Cartagena, 46, had been charged last September with two counts of smuggling drugs into jail between May and June 2014.

On Tuesday, he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor possession of drugs and was sentenced to two years’ probation, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors had alleged that De Cartagena had started letting jail inmates use his cellphone and then began delivering packages to them, including drugs. An inmate came forward to report the alleged smuggling.

Wagstaffe said prosecutors ran into problems proving the case when two of three jail inmates slated to testify against De Cartagena stopped cooperating with the prosecution.

With only one inmate willing to testify, Wagstaffe said the case would have been too difficult to prove since it would have been the word of one jail inmate against a county employee with no criminal record.

He said prosecutors thought the plea to the lesser charge was a “reasonable middle ground.”

“We wish the case were stronger so we could hold him accountable to a higher level,” Wagstaffe said, “but you’re only as good as the evidence you have.”

De Cartagena’s attorney, Michael Hroziencik, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The case was unrelated to a separate case alleging two corrections officers and a sheriff’s deputy smuggled cellphones and drugs to a Hells Angels member over the course of seven months in 2013. Those charges are still pending.

(Image via Shutterstock)