Senior Md. corrections investigators out of jobs following internal affairs probe: (we told you it was coming)

Weeks after federal prosecutors arrested 80 people in a widespread bribery and drug conspiracy inside a Maryland prison, two senior Corrections Department employees who helped in the probe say they have been fired.

Steven F. Geppi, the agency’s director of investigation, intelligence and fugitive apprehension, and Debra Gonzalez Morin, the chief of intelligence, said they were told on Tuesday that “their services were no longer needed.”

They said the state Department of Corrections is also investigating several other employees who work in their former division.

Gerard M. Shields, a Department of Corrections spokesman, confirmed Wednesday that Geppi and Gonzalez Morin are no longer working for the department.

Shields said their departures were not connected to the three-year investigation at Eastern Correctional Institution, in which prison guards were accused of smuggling drugs, cellphones and tobacco into the prison in exchange for money and sex.

Corrections Secretary Stephen T. Moyer received a complaint involving Geppi and Gonzalez about two weeks ago, Shields said, and the two were placed on administrative leave. Shields would not elaborate on the nature of the complaint, only describing it as misconduct.

The Maryland State Police internal affairs division investigated, he said.

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