TAMPA -- A technician at the Falkenburg Road Jail now faces the possibility of his own criminal record, after being charged with stealing metal from the jail and selling it for scrap.
The Hillsborough Sheriff's Office says 45-year-old Rodgers Ruiz took about four hundred pounds of copper and yellow brass and sold them to a recycling company. The value is estimated at three thousand dollars.
Ruiz faces several charges including grand theft, dealing in stolen property, and false information on a pawnbroker form.
Chronister calls it a "betrayal" and a "violation of the very trust that binds this agency together."
An additional employee has been suspended without pay due to a violation of agency policy, and there could be more charges.
Photo: HCSO/Canva