A judge dismissed all charges against two people accused of plotting to smuggle drugs into Silverdale Correctional Facility - in part because authorities violated their constitutional rights.
Crystal Whitthorne, 37, was working as a registered nurse at Silverdale in 2015 when authorities said she colluded with two inmates - Matthew Holloway, 37, and Christopher Millsaps, 32 - to smuggle heroin, marijuana and cocaine into the facility.
Holloway, Millsaps and Whitthorne each were indicted on 10 counts of conspiracy to introduce contraband in penal institutions in December 2015, but almost a year later, Judge Tom Greenholtz dismissed all charges against Holloway and Whitthorne.
Millsaps was on the run from authorities until Wednesday, when he was arrested on the 10-count indictment. His charges are pending and he's scheduled to appear in court today.
However, the current case against Millsaps already has been dismantled by his co-defendants.
In October 2016, Judge Tom Greenholz dismissed 18 of the combined 20 charges against Whitthorne and Holloway after attorney Robin Flores successfully argued that the state charged them too many times for the same crime.
Under state law, even if a person conspires to commit multiple offenses, the person is guilty only of committing one conspiracy.
Each of the indictments for the 20 counts of conspiracy against Whitthorne and Holloway included exactly the same language, word for word. Flores argued that the identical counts meant the state was improperly attempting to charge Whitthorne and Holloway multiple times for the same crime - a violation of their constitutional rights.
Greenholtz agreed and dismissed all but one charge against both defendants.
In a second motion to dismiss, Flores argued that the final charge was baseless because authorities failed to assert that Whitthorne took actual action to carry out the smuggling plot.
Under state law, a person can be found guilty of conspiracy only if the person takes "overt action" to carry out the plot.
The indictment filed against Whitthorne, Holloway and Millsaps alleges that the trio held more than 400 phone conversations in which they discussed how to get illegal drugs into Silverdale, spoke in code about the scheme and plotted ways that Whitthorne could distract the jail's guards while someone threw drugs over the jail's walls.
But it does not allege that the trio ever took any action to carry the plot out, Flores argued.
"The state has not stated anything to point to corroboration of anything other than the fact that the defendants had some discussions," he wrote in a motion to dismiss. "This is akin to the punishment of free speech by a fascist regime."
At a December hearing schedule to discuss the defense's motion, prosecutors asked that both of the remaining charges against Whitthorne and Holloway be dismissed.
Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston, said there was a "technical flaw" with the indictment that prompted prosecutors to seek the dismissal. She said the case will be presented again to a grand jury to try to gain a new indictment.
Contact staff writer Shelly Bradbury at 423-757-6525 or sbradbury@timesfreepress.com with tips or story ideas. Follow @ShellyBradbury.