For a brief time, I worked as a kitchen supervisor in the county jail here. It wasn't a terrible job, but it wasn't spectacular, either. One thing I learned was just how creative criminals can be. Many of them might not be super smart, but they can certainly come up with some unique ways to do things.
And that's when I learned the term "prison wallet." That's what went through my mind when I came across this story.
It comes out of New York, where some officers were suspended because they failed to find a suspect's firearm. However, let's start with the headline, because I need to set the stage just a bit.
The headline reads, "5 Mount Vernon cops suspended after suspect smuggles gun in butt."
Now, again, "prison wallet." For those of you who are unfamiliar, the prison wallet is basically up one's anus. It's a way to smuggle stuff into correctional facilities. While searches are conducted, there's only so much searching that's going to take place, and body cavity searches are incredibly invasive and not really something that happens on a daily basis.
But of all the things I've heard of put in a prison wallet, a firearm isn't really on the list. I could see something like a zip gun, maybe, but an actual firearm?
Luckily, the story itself is a little clearer.
Five cops have been suspended after a prisoner allegedly smuggled a gun in his buttocks and shot another prisoner in the back of a police transport van in Westchester County, authorities said Thursday.
Louis Soto, 32, pulled the gun while being transported by Mount Vernon police on Oct. 16, cops said. He shot another prisoner in the leg in the back of the van; that person has not been publicly identified.
Sources told WPIX on Thursday that Soto smuggled the gun in his buttocks. The Mount Vernon Police Department said only that “a properly conducted frisk or authorized strip search should have revealed the weapon.”
After the gunshot, cops immediately drove the van back to police headquarters, thoroughly searched all five people in the back and located a .22-caliber revolver on Soto.
The two officers in the van, Omar Bryce and Sonjea Collins, were suspended along with officers Cody Housen and Christian Pacheco and Sgt. Joseph Diaz.
So it sounds like it was a small firearm concealed between the butt cheeks.
That makes a lot more sense to me. I can actually see that happening. Especially if a more thorough frisk should have revealed the firearm to the police. They got sloppy and lazy, apparently--hey, it can happen. When you do it a thousand times and find nothing, things slip--and this time, they missed something big.
And the fact that he shot another inmate isn't going to go well for anyone involved.
Soto is in just as much hot water as he probably would have been if he'd been on the streets, but not only are these five guys suspended, you know the injured inmate's lawyer is just licking his chops over this one.
There's going to be a lawsuit and someone is going to pay out the butt--apparently, a handy place to hide a .22 revolver--for his client's injury. Yes, even though he will also have no medical bills since the local government will be paying for all of that, as it happened in police custody.
However, let's understand something important here.
Yes, I see this as a funny story, especially since it seems no one was seriously hurt here, but police custody is the ultimate gun-free zone. If they can't keep guns out of criminal hands in lock-up, then how in the hell are they going to keep guns out of anyone's hands out on the street, where people have a great deal more autonomy?
