DANVILLE: A former Vermilion County correctional officer was sentenced this week for smuggling marijuana to an inmate in jail. Jonathan “Doug” Maloney, 44, of Catlin, will serve 30 months of probation for possession of cannabis.
Maloney pleaded guilty to the amended charge in June in exchange for the probation sentence and testifying against Esmeralda Cordova, one of his two co-defendants in the case.
On Dec. 22 2014, Maloney; Cordova, 36, of Hoopeston; and Jerome Rowell, 38, of Danville, were each charged with bringing contraband into a penal institution. Maloney, an 11-year veteran officer, was also charged with official misconduct.
The sheriff’s department launched an investigation after a corrections supervisor reported to Sheriff Pat Hartshorn that he observed suspicious activity in December. Maloney was fired soon after his arrest.
At Maloney’s preliminary hearing on Jan. 29, 2015, a sheriff’s investigator testified that Maloney admitted speaking to Rowell, an inmate in the jail, to arrange a time to meet Cordova, Rowell’s girlfriend, to get marijuana in exchange for cash.
Cordova delivered the contraband to the jail in a package on Dec. 3, 2014, and Maloney brought it to Rowell in the jail.
Cordova pleaded guilty to official misconduct on Sept. 7, and the unauthorized possession of contraband charge was dismissed. She’s scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 27.
In July 2015, Rowell pleaded guilty to charges stemming for multiple cases. He is currently serving a seven-year sentence at the Shawnee Correctional Center for a charge of drug possession with intent to deliver.
