Jail Guard Faces Trial in Drug Smuggling Case

A Santa Ana jail guard involved in a romantic relationship with an inmate helped carry out a daring scheme to smuggle methamphetamine to her boyfriend and others in the jail, authorities said Monday.

Michelle V. Rodriguez acted as a drug courier at least five times, delivering hardback books stuffed with drugs, Orange County prosecutors allege.

Rodriguez, 25, who was fired by the Santa Ana Police Department in October, was charged Friday with five felony counts. She faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison if convicted.

Security now is being reviewed at the state-of-the-art jail, which houses local, federal and juvenile inmates.

Santa Ana police officials, who oversee the jail, said drugs rarely get past the facility’s front door. Nevertheless, they said there was little they could do in this case when one of their own was allegedly responsible.

“The job . . . carries a certain amount of trust with it,” said Sgt. Raul Luna. “It saddens us to think that one of our own employees would be involved in this type of criminal activity.”

Rodriguez is scheduled to surrender at an arraignment today. Her attorney declined to comment on the charges until after the hearing.

Rodriguez, like all of the jail’s 85 guards, was a civilian employee. She passed an extensive background check before starting work in February 1997. It was there that she met Sergio Sagesyan and fell for him, authorities say.

Sagesyan, now 23, was in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which pays the jail to house federal inmates.

He used Rodriguez’s affection to launch the drug-smuggling scheme, authorities allege.

“Some people commit crimes because they want to get rich,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ebrahim Baytieh said. “She committed it because she wanted love and affection.”

Prosecutors said that, some time after Nov. 1, 1999, Rodriguez gave Sagesyan her home phone number and address. They then allegedly discussed ways she could smuggle drugs into the jail, items that a woman on the outside would supply her.

Named in documents as Jane Doe, the supplier gave Rodriguez books with drugs tucked into the binder, court documents allege.

Rodriguez brought the books to work and slipped them past the usual inspections that all materials destined for inmates must go through, according to court documents. She then allegedly passed the books to another inmate in INS custody, Edwin Shakhpazyah.

Other jail guards eventually unraveled the conspiracy after finding some of the drugs during a cell search, Baytieh said.