Parole agent exchanged bus passes and gift cards for pills from parolee, prosecutors say
A parole agent was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of handing over gift cards and bus passes in return for narcotics prescribed to a parolee.
Scott Patric Keblis, 49, of Chino, was charged with one felony count of embezzlement by a public employee and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance,the Orange County district attorney’s office said.
Keblis was released from custody Thursday after posting $20,000 bond.
Prosecutors said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation received an anonymous report in November that Keblis was providing bus passes in exchange for prescription narcotics from a parolee.
Keblis obtained two bus passes and two $40 Target gift cards from the corrections department later that month, after claiming he needed to give them to a parolee under his supervision, prosecutors said. He then drove to Huntington Beach to meet with a different parolee, who was not under his supervision.
He exchanged the bus passes, gift cards, and $30 for 26 of the parolee’s prescription hydrocodone pills, according to the district attorney’s office.
Corrections officials said they could not comment because of the ongoing investigation, but confirmed Keblis was a parole agent when he was arrested.
If convicted, Keblis faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison and one year in county jail. In addition, he would be ineligible to hold “any office of honor, trust, or profit in California,” the district attorney’s office said.
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