Two years ago, we discovered just how much the going rate was to pay off a guard to help you escape Rikers Island: $100K in cocaine. Today, former corrections officer Robert Whitfield has been found guilty for participating in that sort of transaction. And it all would have worked out swell if the inmate hadn't turned him in.
During the trial, it came out that Whitfield had bragged that he could alter the inmate’s records by accessing a New York City Department of Correction computer. Whitfield, a Queens resident and 21-year veteran, approached several inmates at the jail before finding one who would agree to pay his fee for the plot. The inmate reported it to authorities though.
Whitfield's designated intermediary, Islime Duviver, received three kilograms of cocaine (over 6.5 lbs.) from an undercover agent posing as the inmate’s cousin on April 5, 2011. Whitfield was arrested shortly after that. He was found guilty of drug possession, conspiracy, bribery and official misconduct in the case. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
