LOS ANGELES – A Lake Elsinore man who was employed as a correctional officer at the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island plead guilty to a federal bribery charge for taking $1,000 in cash to smuggle a cell phone into the prison facility, officials said.
Luis Borjon, 52, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the felony charge and admitted that he took the payment while employed as a correctional officer by the United States Bureau of Prisons, authorities said.
Borjon will be sentenced in February and is facing up to 15 years in prison.
According to court documents, Borjon approached an inmate under his supervision at the Terminal Island prison in November 2012 and solicited a “loan.”
The inmate put Borjon in contact with the inmate’s brother, who was not in custody, and Borjon called the inmate’s brother to provide him with the number for Borjon’s “burner cell phone” or a disposable phone.
The inmate’s brother met Borjon in January 2013 at a gas station in Lake Elsinore, where Borjon accepted about $1,000 in cash and a cell phone to smuggle into the prison. Borjon subsequently smuggled the cell phone into the Terminal Island facility and delivered it to the inmate.
Soon after, authorities said other correctional officers found and seized the smuggled cell phone.