A former employee of Henry C. Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg pleaded guilty to official misconduct for smuggling a cell phone into the prison for an inmate.
In exchange for her plea, other charges including bringing electric contraband into the prison and possession of electric contraband were dropped against Melanie Cohill, 37.
Cohill appeared in Knox County court Monday with her attorney for a plea hearing before Judge Andrew Doyle.
Per the plea agreement, she was sentenced to 18 months of conditional discharge and 30 days in the Knox County jail. The jail sentence will be stayed pending completion of conditional discharge.
Official misconduct is a Class 3 felony in Illinois. The charges dropped were Class X and Class 1 felonies, carrying minimum prison sentences of six and four years respectively.
Cohill had no previous criminal record.
In 2020, officers found a charger and accessories for a Straight Talk wireless phone in an inmate’s cell, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing last year.
Investigators believed the phone was hidden in a body cavity of the inmate. Pieces of the phone were later found in a toilet.
A subpoena of the phone revealed the inmate had exchanged 30,000 text messages and calls with Cohill, whose number was registered with the Illinois Department of Corrections as an employee.
Hill is a medium security prison housing around 1,200 men.
Cohill’s salary at the time of the offense was $94,300, according to state data.
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