One of three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies accused of sneaking drugs into the jail after a 2020 investigation by the Gang Unit has been acquitted.
After a three-day trial, a jury returned their verdict Sept. 13, finding Deputy Jose Gutierrez, 38, not guilty of possession of marijuana in excess of 20 grams and not guilty of introduction of contraband into a county detention facility, court records show. His attorney Greg Salnick said jurors deliberated for just under two hours.
“In this case, the jury worked very hard. It was a hard-fought battle and justice was served, and after two-and-a-half years, I’m very happy for Deputy Gutierrez and his family that this nightmare is finally over,” Salnick said Wednesday evening.
His case was the last of the three that resulted from the Sheriff’s Office investigation to be resolved. Corrections deputies Karl Kirkland, 58, and Samuel Pierre, 31, were also arrested in April 2021, accused of smuggling contraband into the jail on behalf of inmates.
Internal Affairs said investigators listened to inmates’ calls, hearing them refer to Kirkland and Pierre by code names and setting up arrangements to meet with family and friends on the outside to do the deals. Investigators surveilled Pierre and Kirkland and watched them meet up with people for the exchanges, according to Internal Affairs records.
Investigators listened to an inmate’s phone calls on a day in March 2021, hearing the inmate plan with people on the outside to pick up boxes of food from Domino’s Pizza and hide bags of marijuana inside, according to Gutierrez’s probable cause affidavit. They watched a man drop off the delivery boxes at the jail, and Gutierrez was accused of taking them and putting them inside a garbage bag. Investigators found two bags of marijuana hidden in a sandwich in one of the boxes, the affidavit said.
Kirkland pleaded guilty last September to two lesser counts of introducing contraband into a county detention facility and was sentenced to time served, 16 days, and two years of probation. He relinquished his criminal justice certification shortly after.
Pierre was also required to relinquish his certification and to pay court costs after he entered a pre-trial diversion agreement last October. He submitted a resignation letter to the Sheriff’s Office the day he entered the agreement.
Teri Barbera, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said in an email Wednesday afternoon that Gutierrez is now on paid administrative leave, as an Internal Affairs investigation that was suspended during the criminal case has resumed. Gutierrez had been on administrative leave with pay after his arrest in April 2021, then administrative leave without pay from later that month until the end of the case.
“We presented all of the evidence to the jury and we respect their verdict in this case,” Marc Freeman, a State Attorney’s Office spokesperson, said in an email Wednesday evening.