Former Idaho Prison Guard Sentenced in FBI Sting
BOISE, Idaho (KLIX)-A former correctional officer will spend a little more than three years on the inside of a jail cell after getting caught in an FBI sting to catch corrupt prison staff.
On Friday the Office of U.S. Attorney Bart Davis announced the sentence of 36-year-old Robert Wallin, an Idaho Department of Correction officer charged who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid and abet drug trafficking.
Wallin and co-defendants were caught in an undercover FBI operation, at the request of IDOC, to reveal corrupt prison guards. The defendants thought they were helping large-scale drug traffickers, but instead undercover agents who got the guards to commit crimes outside of prison facilities. Davis's office says none of the defendants were in possession of drugs and no drugs were taken into any prison facility as part of the sting operation.
U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Wallin to 37 months in prison and three years supervised released once he is out. Three other correctional officers, Timothy Landon, age 36, Erik Thompson, age 38, Richard McCollough, age 37, are waiting to be sentenced after pleading guilty to related crimes.