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New Jersey Corrections Officer Indicted On Charges Alleging He Accepted Bribes, Smuggled Contraband Into State Prison

TRENTON (CBS) -- A Mercer County grand jury has returned the indictment charging a New Jersey State corrections officer and his accomplice with accepting bribes to smuggle contraband into the state prison. The three-count indictment charges 27-year-old corrections officer Jamaine Russell of Deptford, and 34-year-old Debra Rayner of Mullica Hill, with one count each of second-degree official misconduct, second-degree bribery and third-degree financial facilitation of criminal activity.

Russell, a NJDOC employee since 2016, allegedly used his position to receive cash payments in exchange for bringing narcotics and other contraband into the N.J. State Prison in Trenton from October 2018 through November 2019, according to the indictment.

Rayner was reportedly indicted as an accomplice to his illegal acts. Despite not being an employee of NJDOC, she is legally accountable for Russell's conduct because she promoted and facilitated the commission of the crimes charged.

The pair were charged in November 2019 after an investigation by the NJDOC Special Investigations Division.

Assistant Prosecutor Rachel Cook, chief of the Economic Crime Unit, presented the case to the grand jury.

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