05-15-2009, 06:51 PM
A Lee County jailer was fired after she became too close to an inmate — writing him love letters, bringing him candy, and speaking with him and his sister on a cell phone, according to an internal investigation.
Deputy Fay St. Rose, 46, a corrections officer at the downtown jail, wrote four personal letters to Makeith Crews, 31, a convicted drug dealer with a long rap sheet, according to the report. She slipped each missive, written on paper towels, beneath his cell door.
She was fired on May 7 for breaking four agency rules, including conduct unbecoming an officer and willful violation of official procedures.
In the letters, copies of which were obtained by the Naples Daily News, St. Rose imagines a wedding between she and Crews.
"I Mrs. Makeith Crews do love you Mr. M. Crews," she wrote.
She offered Crews bible verses, and she referenced a letter that Crews wrote to her, saying she "cried tears of joy" when she saw it.
"Do not doubt us," she wrote Crews. "Only God can stop it."
Another inmate, Jose Arce, first drew attention to the relationship. He later told investigators that St. Rose was being set up as a "mule" to bring Crews drugs. He said one scheme involved her obtaining crack-cocaine-laced candy bars from Crews' sister. But he said the plan never worked.
St. Rose acknowledged bringing Crews' candy and chicken, hidden within legal materials she delivered to the inmate. But all of it was from within the jail, she said.
St. Rose had been ordered off Crews' floor in March, after her superiors noticed she spent too much time on the floor for someone not assigned to be there, according to the report.
Deputy Fay St. Rose, 46, a corrections officer at the downtown jail, wrote four personal letters to Makeith Crews, 31, a convicted drug dealer with a long rap sheet, according to the report. She slipped each missive, written on paper towels, beneath his cell door.
She was fired on May 7 for breaking four agency rules, including conduct unbecoming an officer and willful violation of official procedures.
In the letters, copies of which were obtained by the Naples Daily News, St. Rose imagines a wedding between she and Crews.
"I Mrs. Makeith Crews do love you Mr. M. Crews," she wrote.
She offered Crews bible verses, and she referenced a letter that Crews wrote to her, saying she "cried tears of joy" when she saw it.
"Do not doubt us," she wrote Crews. "Only God can stop it."
Another inmate, Jose Arce, first drew attention to the relationship. He later told investigators that St. Rose was being set up as a "mule" to bring Crews drugs. He said one scheme involved her obtaining crack-cocaine-laced candy bars from Crews' sister. But he said the plan never worked.
St. Rose acknowledged bringing Crews' candy and chicken, hidden within legal materials she delivered to the inmate. But all of it was from within the jail, she said.
St. Rose had been ordered off Crews' floor in March, after her superiors noticed she spent too much time on the floor for someone not assigned to be there, according to the report.