RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Maryland woman has been sentenced to 45 months in prison for her role in a scheme in which bribes were paid to correctional officers in exchange for allowing contraband inside a Virginia prison where the woman’s son was an inmate.
Kim Williams, 57, of Baltimore, facilitated over $60,000 in bribe payments consisting of both wire transfers and cash payments to former federal correctional officers Stephen Taylor, 49, of Wake Forest, North Carolina; and Shanice Bullock, 28, of South Hill, Virginia; according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In return, Taylor and Bullock permitted contraband items throughout the Federal Corrections Institution in Petersburg, Virginia, court documents said. Williams’s son, Dontay Cox, 38, of Baltimore, was an inmate at the prison. Prosecutors say Cox ran a gambling ring within the prison and distributed the contraband, including Suboxone, marijuana, heroin, cigarettes, and cellular telephones.
Between December 2016 and September 2019, Williams’s bank accounts show deposits of nearly $138,000, including almost $95,000 in untraceable cash deposits.
