Benner state prison guard charged, accused of planning to smuggle drugs to an inmate
A Benner state prison corrections officer was charged Wednesday after investigators alleged he planned to smuggle drugs into the prison for an inmate.
Kevin B. Hoch Jr., 40, planned to bring 10 sheets of paper saturated with synthetic cannabinoids into the prison, an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Hoch, of Spring Township, is suspended without pay, Corrections Department press secretary Maria A. Bivens wrote in an email Wednesday. He was hired in October 2015.
A package containing the papers was set to be sent to Hoch’s home by the mother of an inmate. Security staff learned of the plan after reviewing recorded inmate phone calls, the investigator wrote.
Investigators intercepted the package before it was delivered and found the papers inside two envelopes, the investigator wrote. They placed replica papers inside the package, delivered it to Hoch’s home and watched as he took the package inside.
Hoch said he “got into a little financial situation, gambling online,” the investigator wrote. Hoch said he smuggled drugs into the prison for about four months.
Hoch admitted family members of inmates paid him about $17,000 through the mobile payment service Cash App, the investigator wrote.
A defense lawyer was not listed.
Hoch was charged with one felony count each of conspiracy to provide a controlled substance to an inmate, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and criminal use of a communication facility. He was also charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance.
He was arraigned by District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker, who released Hoch on $75,000 unsecured bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 16.