Staff Report

Dennis Edward Bradley

WARSAW — A Rochester man faces charges for his involvement in an attempted drug trafficking incident at the Kosciusko County Jail.

Dennis Edward Bradley, 32, 6753 N. Railroad St., Rochester, is charged with attempted trafficking with an inmate, a Level 5 felony; and possession of a legend drug, a Level 6 felony.

On Oct. 11, 2021, an Indiana State trooper was contacted by the Kosciusko County Jail commander, who requested the trooper complete an investigation for trafficking with an inmate at KCJ.

A day later, the KCJ commander provided the trooper with information that jail officers compiled regarding the attempted trafficking investigation. Evidence included a plastic bag containing chewing tobacco pouches, two orange-colored pills and digital video and audio recordings.

The jail commander said that on Oct. 10, 2021, a jail officer escorted Bradley, who was a KCJ trustee at the time, from the jail to take trash to a dumpster outside of jail. Bradley allegedly retrieved an item from the dumpster and placed it in his jail uniform pocket. According to court documents, the jail officer waited until Bradley was close to him and retrieved the item from the trustee’s pocket.

The package contained chewing tobacco pouches and two pills identified as a controlled substance.

Surveillance video and jail phone calls of the incident were provided to the Indiana State trooper. Jason P. Spriggs, Warsaw, made phone calls to Julie A. Pierce, Warsaw, in which he instructed Pierce on how to package the contraband and to put it on a trash dumpster outside of the jail.

Video footage showed Pierce walking up to the jail’s trash dumpster on Oct. 6, 2021. On Oct. 9, 2021, footage showed Pierce walking up to the trash dumpster and placing a package into the dumpster’s rails.

Bradley told officers that Spriggs said where the package was going to be and that he picked the package up and placed it in his pocket. Bradley said he knew the package would contain chewing tobacco.

Spriggs is facing a trafficking with an inmate felony charge. He has a pretrial conference in this case on May 16.

Pierce received a three-year local sentence in February for attempted trafficking with an inmate.