A veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s department has been arrested for allegedly accepting bribes from a legal runner who facilitated drug and contraband sales inside the Men’s Main Jail in Santa Ana. According to investigators, the bribe-taking arrangement lasted nearly two years.
The investigation began in January of 2012, after drugs, tobacco, and a cellular phone was found in an inmate’s cell at the end of 2011. That discovery enabled investigators to identify 31-year old Ha Duc Nguyen, a legal runner, as the supplier of contraband. Nguyen had regular contact with an inmate named Stephenson Kim, who was in jail for the crime of homicide.
Nguyen allegedly provided money and other items to Deputy David Lloyd Cass, as a bribe.
According to reports, Nguyen and Kim are married, and would meet in rooms designed to allow private meetings between lawyers and clients. There, they would engage in sexual acts and Nguyen would provide Kim with the contraband. Items included drugs, food, razors, and phones.
Officers examined the logs of calls into and out of the jail and listened to recordings of Kim and Nguyen’s calls where details of the crimes were discussed.
Cass now faces two counts of asking for and accepting bribes, and could face more than four and a half years in jail, if convicted.