By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

PLYMOUTH — Former Kosciusko County Community Corrections Director Anna Bailey has pleaded guilty to a Level 6 felony official misconduct charge.

The charge stems from a fall 2019 incident in which Bailey was aware of a community corrections inmate and KCCC employee violating KCCC rules.

Bailey, 43, South Bend, pleaded guilty in Marshall County’s Superior Court Two on Monday, Nov. 8. According to Bailey’s plea agreement, a Level 6 felony obstruction of justice charge she was facing will be dismissed.

The plea agreement calls for a one-year sentence, with six months in home detention and the rest to be determined at the court’s discretion upon sentencing.

Sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Dec. 2, to allow for Bailey to report to Cass County Community Corrections for evaluation to see if she is eligible for their program.

Background on Case

According to court documents, on Oct. 25, 2019, the Syracuse Police Department was contacted by two KCCC officers who expressed concerns about possible KCCC violations and criminal activity. These concerns were a result of an ongoing internal investigation and included escape (by knowingly or intentionally violating a home detention order) of KCCC inmate Steven Gasaway, 31, 5774 N. Second St., Warsaw.

One KCCC officer indicated he had been assigned as Gasaway’s supervisor until early October 2019 when, according to his report, Bailey assumed responsibility as Gasaway’s supervisor without giving any specific reason for the change.

According to KCCC records, including GPS records, Gasaway was spending a significant amount of time at Taylor Pagan’s home. Pagan, 25, 2236 E. 600S, Warsaw, was Bailey’s former assistant.

This allegedly included overnight visits and occurred during Bailey’s supervision of Gasaway’s case.

The corrections officer said he was uncomfortable questioning Bailey about the violations because he and another KCCC officer had observed Bailey and Pagan’s interactions with Gasaway to be “overly friendly and unprofessional.” As a result, the officers voiced their concerns to members of the community corrections advisory board and were directed to contact law enforcement.

On Oct. 30, 2019, police went to Gasaway’s residence in Syracuse, where a vehicle belonging to Pagan was seen. Pagan was allegedly observed existing Gasaway’s residence at 7:30 a.m. Police were able to view a security video of Gasaway’s apartment exterior, which showed Pagan arriving at and entering Gasaway’s apartment at 11:58 p.m. Oct. 29, 2019.

Police spoke with Pagan and advised her of her rights. Pagan said she was employed at that time at KCCC and that Bailey was her direct supervisor. She further admitted she had been at Gasaway’s apartment and that he had been spending the night at her residence on weekends. Pagan refused to answer questions related to the nature of her relationship with Gasaway.

Officers then spoke with Gasaway, who asked if Bailey was aware he was being questioned. Gasaway admitted to being in the KCCC program and that Bailey was his supervisor. He indicated he did not want to get anyone in trouble and refused to answer any further questions.

Police were contacted by one of the corrections officers, who said he had just spoken with Gasaway, who sounded “very frantic.” Gasaway told the KCCC officer he had been trying to contact Bailey on both her work and personal phones but was unable to reach her.

Shortly afterward, the KCCC officer informed police that Bailey wanted to speak with him immediately. Police asked the corrections officer to record the conversation. The KCCC officer said only he and Bailey were present during the conversation. Bailey told the KCCC officer that Pagan and Gasaway were involved in a relationship and that police have seized Pagan’s phone. During the conversation, Bailey said she was mad the police had been following Pagan.

In one curse-filled comment, Bailey said she didn’t know what was going on, saying everyone needs to “toe the f****** line” and again said, “What the f*** is going on?”

Following that meeting, the corrections officer said Bailey informed him that Gasaway would be coming to the KCCC office and that he was instructed by Bailey to have Gasaway stand by for a meeting.

A short time later, Bailey, Gasaway, and the KCCC officer had a meeting, which reportedly lasted for over an hour and was recorded by the KCCC officer.

The KCCC officer recorded several more meetings on Oct. 30 and 31, 2019. During these meetings, Bailey advised Gasaway on what to say in order to stay out of trouble.

The officer said there were several more meetings involving Bailey, which he recorded. He said those conversations revolved around how Gasaway could have continuously departed from his approved locations without KCCC knowledge, how that could be explained and/or justified and how it could be covered up.

The KCCC officer said a great deal of effort was put into coordinating their stories, coloring testimony and covering up possible evidence.

In the recorded conversations, Bailey asked Gasaway if Pagan deleted messages on her cell phone. The nature of the conversations seemed to point to concerns by Bailey about what officers would find on Pagan’s phone.

At some point during one of the recorded conversations, Bailey expressed concern that a pass she signed for Gasaway to go to Pagan’s residence could get them into trouble, because one of KCCC’s rules is that an inmate/participant cannot go to a personal residence whatsoever. The rule is listed on the back of the pass.

On the recording, Bailey spoke about eliminating the page explaining the rule so that no one would be aware of it.

The Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office requested copies of Gasaway’s file. On or about Nov. 13, 2019, Bailey said the original file was missing and supplied copies of Gasaway’s file. The file was missing the rule explaining how participants cannot go to personal residences.

On Dec. 10, 2019, police spoke with a third KCCC officer, who said that sometime in early November 2019, Bailey directed him to be Gasaway’s supervisor. He further said that Bailey provided him with documents from Gasaway’s file and instructed him to keep it safe by taking it home. The KCCC officer took the paperwork to his residence as directed.

Police reviewed those documents, which included Gasaway’s schedules, three passes and copies of the three passes, with parts of the rules missing.

Police obtained reports indicating Gasaway’s GPS location. There were several incidents in which Gasaway’s location was in the vicinity of Pagan’s parents, who lived next door to Pagan. Gasaway’s pass was approved by Bailey to be at Pagan’s address.

In addition to the improper pass, reports showed that Gasaway was in the vicinity of Pagan’s residence without KCCC approval on eight separate occasions between Sept. 29 and Oct. 28, 2019.

Participants in the KCCC program are not permitted to make unapproved stops and are not allowed to have unapproved visitors in their residence without prior approval.

A KCCC officer told police that during the time period when Gasaway was violating KCCC rules, he was under Bailey’s supervision and that she would have received alerts notifying her of his unapproved locations.

He said that if other KCCC officers received violation alerts, they were required to notify Bailey; however, according to the KCCC officer, during the time period when Gasaway was under Bailey’s supervision, Gasaway did not fill out a weekly schedule, which is required by KCCC rules.

In this case, Gasaway is charged with escape, a level 6 felony. He is taking the matter to jury trial, which is set for February 2022.

Pagan is charged with aiding, inducing or causing escape, a level 6 felony. She has a pretrial conference for this case in February 2022.