LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Lake County detention deputy was arrested Tuesday and faces a contraband charge after his sheriff’s office alleges he stowed vape cartridges in a trash can for inmates to retrieve, according to an arrest affidavit.
Bailey Lennon, 25, was arrested Tuesday on probable cause following interviews with him and with the inmates he’s accused of consorting with.
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According to the affidavit, Lennon would hide half-full vape cartridges under the trash bag of a bin in a jail staff bathroom that he, fellow deputies and several “house men” had access to, with that term explained by an inmate as one responsible for regularly cleaning such a bathroom.
From there, the cartridges would be collected, concealed and later smoked by inmates using a paperclip to complete a circuit with the exposed positive and negative terminals of a tablet’s battery, deputies were told.
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The first inmate to bring this information before the sheriff’s office reportedly started doing so in late May, stating they got a cartridge from another inmate and that they had become aware Lennon was putting them in place. They were unsure, however, if Lennon was receiving any money for it, the affidavit states.
Another inmate approached deputies with information the next week, receiving instructions another week later that he was to leave alone any further cartridges that he might find or become aware of and notify detectives.
The inmate on June 19 reported recovering one cartridge each day from June 16-18 in the staff bathroom trash can. Those cartridges were said to be for another inmate who had been moved from the pod as a reprimand, leaving their cell mate — the inmate who initially reported the alleged contraband to the sheriff’s office — to take care of it.
Detectives turned to surveillance video after possible fingerprints on the cartridges proved unhelpful. On tape, Lennon was observed entering the staff bathroom multiple times on the aforementioned mid-June dates, deputies said.
The morning of June 21, deputies conducted sweeps of the bathroom. No contraband was found prior to Lennon’s interaction with it around noon that day, but deputies said a cartridge was then found in their next sweep around 1 p.m., the affidavit states.
The bathroom was then secured for a time, during which Lennon entered it again and was described by others there as being “on edge,” according to the document.
Lennon was brought aside for questioning and got caught in a lie, deputies said.
After claiming he was just disposing of old cartridges for new ones, he was questioned about why they were half full. At this, Lennon reportedly said he disliked using cartridges once they get halfway used and that he intended to remove the trash from the bathroom himself — acknowledging inmates had access to it — before recanting the statement and saying he lied, according to the affidavit.
Lennon removed and placed on a tabletop four new cartridges during this interview, denying he was being extorted by an inmate or that he was being paid by one.
The affidavit also referenced a previous incident in May when Lennon said electronic cigarette cartridges had been stolen from his bag, which was left unsecured under a desk in his pod. The cartridges were eventually recovered by another deputy and were returned to Lennon, who was counseled by a peer for “carelessness” due to how he never filed an official report, the affidavit states.
Though it addressed them as “electronic cigarette cartridges,” the affidavit did not specify what the cartridges contained.
Lennon was arrested via warrant and faces a charge of introduction of contraband to a county detention facility, a third-degree felony. He posted $2,000 bond and was released within 15 minutes of being booked Tuesday evening, records show.
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