NJ jail sergeant charged with lying about strip search findings

🔴 A jail sergeant is charged with official misconduct

🔴 Officers found drugs in rubber glove tips during a strip search, documents say

🔴 The sergeant took the narcotics, prosecutors said

HAMILTON (Atlantic) — A corrections officer at the Atlantic County Justice Facility took drugs found on an inmate during a strip search for himself and coerced another officer to cover it up, according to prosecutors.

Fred Gilbert, 37, of Egg Harbor City is charged with second-degree official misconduct, third-degree witness tampering, fourth-degree obstruction, two counts of fourth-degree false reporting, and fourth-degree evidence tampering, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.

Gilbert serves as a sergeant at the county jail in Mays Landing, which houses 772 inmates, according to jail records. State records showed Gilbert, who began serving as a corrections officer in 2008, made a salary of $106,365 as of last year.

Gilbert is now suspended without pay, county spokeswoman Linda Gilmore said.

Authorities said Gilbert took narcotics seized from an inmate during a strip search and never turned them in as evidence; investigators still haven't been able to find the drugs, according to court documents dated Tuesday.

A criminal complaint said that officers at Atlantic County jail saw an inmate get contraband during a transaction on June 12, 2023.

The inmate was then strip-searched. Officers found narcotics hidden in rubber glove tips along with handwritten letters.

They put the drugs and letters into an evidence bag and brought it to Gilbert — their direct supervisor, the documents said.

Gilbert then instructed the officer to write up a report stating no narcotics were found, according to the complaint. When the officer had trouble writing the report, Gilbert wrote it up for him and had the officer sign it, the complaint said.

The narcotics were never turned in as evidence, according to the complaint.

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