Washington County jail scanner turned up contraband; police charge inmate
City police this week charged a Mon Valley resident with hiding contraband that was revealed by a recently-installed device at the Washington County jail.
Angelina Victoria Gates, 32, of Crest Avenue, Charleroi, arrived at the jail Jan. 30 on a parole detainer filed by the adult probation department and entered the jail as a new commitment.
Gates went through a body scanner at the jail, and she was informed that it detected possible contraband in a body cavity in a digital image.
According to an affidavit filed by police, Gates told a corrections officer she had pills that she would remove in a shower room and turn over.
Inside a balloon that had been placed in a jewelry pouch were 18 caffeine pills and 2陆 pills containing a painkiller. Gates did not have permission to bring the pills into the jail from a physician, warden or superintendent, according to police.
Police on Tuesday charged Gates with having contraband other than a controlled substance and filed it with District Judge Robert Redlinger.
Warden Edward Strawn reported earlier this month to the county prison board that the body scanner has turned up three kinds of contraband since it was installed late last year and then passed inspection and re-inspection by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which regulates devices that use radiation.
Gates remains an inmate at the jail, where she was one of 76 female inmates as January ended.