MARATHON, FLA. (WSVN) - A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy has been arrested and charged with attempting to help an inmate escape from jail in exchange for cash.
According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, 50-year-old Elizardo Ortueta, a Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy, made a deal to receive cash in exchange for helping 35-year-old inmate Albert Vizcaino Gonzalez escape from Stock Island Detention Center.
Vizcaino told police Ortueta provided him with fitness related substances and items on multiple occasions, including a suspected steroid, for an extended period of time.
During this period, Ortueta allegedly approached Vizcaino and asked to borrow $50,000 in exchange for continued preferential treatment in jail. Ortueta reportedly told him he was in debt and needed a new roof for his house.
Then, on a later date, is is alleged, Ortueta approached Vizcaino for a second time with an even better offer: for $400,000 in cash, he would help Vizcaino escape from custody on his way to prison.
Gonzalez and his attorney reported this offer to the Sheriff’s Office, where investigators worked with Vizcaino to set up a a controlled delivery of cash to Ortueta.
In order to arrest Ortueta, Vizcaino gave him an offer: $150,000 in cash in advance with the balance paid after Vizcaino’s release. On Thursday, at 12:45 p.m., a confidential source met with Ortueta at the CVS Pharmacy parking lot on Big Pine Key. The source handed over cash and Ortueta was placed under arrest.
He has been charged with receiving unlawful compensation for official behavior, smuggling contraband into a corrections facility, use of a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony and with not having a valid Florida driver’s license, although he does possess a valid North Carolina license.
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