Lancaster, SC detention officer arrested in plot to smuggle drugs to inmate, cops say
A former detention officer in Lancaster County was fired and arrested after sheriff’s officials say she smuggled drugs into the jail to an inmate with whom she was romantically involved.
The inmate in the jail, and another man, also have been charged in a plot to bring the drugs into the jail, officials said.
Kayla Marie Klimczak, 32, the former jail officer, was arrested and fired Nov. 6, said Doug Barfield, spokesman for the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office. Klimczak is accused of taking drugs to inmates in the jail at least three times while working there, Barfield said.
Klimczak worked at the jail from September 2019 through October, then quit, Barfield said. She had a “change of heart,” Barfield said, and was rehired with a scheduled start date of Nov. 6.
But before she resumed working at the jail again, Klimczak was arrested and fired Nov. 6, Barfield said. Additional charges were filed Nov. 13.
Sheriff Barry Faile said deputies arrested Klimczak Nov. 6, after an internal investigation revealed the plot to get drugs into the jail to inmate James Andrew Waites, 30.
“Investigators learned that Klimczak and Waites knew each other outside their ties to the detention center, and evidence developed that their relationship was romantic,” Barfield said in a statement.
The investigation showed that Klimczak, Waites and Jeffrey Dayton Johnson, 46, also of Horry County, engaged in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the jail, sheriff’s officials said. Investigators say Johnson planned to provide the drugs to Klimczak, who would then give them to Waites.
Investigators searched Klimczak’s car when she reported for her interview. They found four Suboxone pills in the car, officials said.
In a statement to The Herald, Faile said illegal acts by sheriff’s office employees will not be tolerated and that the former officer “broke the public’s trust.”
“We take very seriously our obligation to maintain safety, security, and order within the detention center for the protection of the inmates, the staff and the public,” Faile said in the statement. “Our employees on the enforcement side and on the corrections side are placed in positions of trust.”
Klimczak is charged with misconduct in office, two counts of distribution of drugs, conspiracy to deliver drugs to inmates, furnishing inmates with contraband, and attempted furnishing of contraband to inmates, according to court records. She was released Friday after posting $10,000 bond, Lancaster County Detention Center officials said.
Waites, the inmate, and Johnson each were charged with conspiracy to furnish contraband to inmates.
Waites, of Conway, has been in the Lancaster County jail since September 2019 on a bench warrant after failing to appear in court after a 2017 arrest for sex offenses, Barfield said. He remains in jail, Barfield said.
Johnson was arrested at his Conway home Friday and remains in the Horry County jail pending transport to Lancaster County, Barfield said.
The arrest of an area jail worker for taking drugs to inmates in jail is the second in two months. In September, a female detention officer in York County was arrested and fired after attempting to bring drugs into the jail to inmates, officials said.
This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 8:06 PM with the headline "Lancaster, SC detention officer arrested in plot to smuggle drugs to inmate, cops say."
