LAWFUEL – US Criminal Law News – R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, Miami Field Office, and Robert Parker, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department, announced that defendant Shynita Townsend, 43, a Miami-Dade Corrections & Rehabilitation Officer, has been arrested on a federal complaint charging her with bribery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 666(a). If convicted, Townsend faces a statutory maximum sentence of ten (10) years’ imprisonment.
According to the complaint, Townsend, a Miami-Dade Corrections Officer since 1989, was assigned to the Police Department’s Monitored Release Program, where she supervised defendants who are out on bond and wearing electronic monitoring . On June 18, 2003, an individual named Humberto Febles was arrested and charged with various crimes, and subsequently released on a $500,000 bond with home detention. As a condition of his bond, Febles was required to wear an electronic monitoring device and was assigned to defendant Townsend for supervision. While supervising Febles, Townsend allegedly accepted over $5000 in cash and gifts from Febles, including diamond earrings and video games, to allow him to violate the conditions of his bond and evade the electronic monitoring requirements. As a result, Febles was able to continue to operate his drug trafficking organization. Ultimately, Febles fled the jurisdiction and remains a fugitive to this date.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the DEA and the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Public Corruption Investigations Bureau. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Barbara Jean Throne.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
