2nd particular person arrested in investigation into Maine corrections official accused of taking kickbacks
AUGUSTA, Maine — A second arrest has been made within the investigation right into a Maine corrections official accused of steering purchases to sure distributors in alternate for kickbacks in a long-running scheme, officers stated.
Melanie Ann Excessive, who was arrested Thursday in Florida, is accused of utilizing kickbacks to induce Gerald E. Merrill, deputy superintendent on the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston and Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport, to make repeated purchases from firms she managed, in keeping with court docket information.
Excessive, 67, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was being held with out bail Friday at a jail in Broward County, Florida, on Maine fees of theft by unauthorized taking and bribery in official and political issues, in keeping with information.
The state fees towards Merrill and Excessive point out the spending threshold of the crimes surpassed $10,000, however the precise amount of cash transferred over a interval of about 10 years is believed to be far greater. State Auditor Matthew Dunlap and Danna Hayes, the legal professional basic’s spokesperson, declined Friday to say how a lot cash was spent by Merrill.
It was unclear when Excessive was going to be delivered to Maine to face fees, or whether or not she had a lawyer. Merrill, 61, made his preliminary court docket look through Zoom on Wednesday.
Dunlap stated the legal professional basic’s legal investigation stemmed from a broader inquiry by his workplace of routine transactions utilizing procurement playing cards, that are a contemporary equal of petty money.
Merrill, who managed budgets on the two prisons, was discovered to have made an extreme variety of procurement card purchases close to the spending restrict of $4,999, arousing the curiosity of an auditing group, Dunlap stated. The purchases had been for gadgets that ought to’ve been coated by a grasp settlement as an alternative of being dealt with by a number of, smaller purchases, he stated.
