MONTGOMERY COUNTY — An Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction parole officer is being investigated on reports he used his position to get a female inmate released from Montgomery County Jail.
The Ohio Inspector General received a complaint in 2016 from Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction that Parole Officer Andrew Bernier used his position to accelerate the release of an offender at the Montgomery County Jail, who was not under his supervision.
“The joint investigation ... determined that Bernier, while on disability leave, made phone calls and visits to the inmate in jail; contacted a drug and alcohol treatment center to secure a bed for the inmate; and convinced a judge to issue an order to release the inmate to the officer,” reads a release from Office of the Ohio Inspector General.
An investigative report indicates in July 2016, Bernier visited a female inmate, Kathleen Driscoll, at Montgomery County Jail and “gave her contraband items ... a poem and some photographs.” He was then ordered Aug. 1, 2016 not to enter the jail or have contact with any inmates again.
The next day though, Bernier tried to enter the jail through two areas — the sally port and then the public lobby.
The Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office will now review the case. Inspector General Randall Meyer said the prosecutor’s office decides any potential charges, but that criminal charges of a felony degree could be considered.
The report indicates Bernier did have previous supervision of the female inmate, but that she had not been on probation since March 2014.
Meyer said the extent of Bernier’s relationship with Driscoll is unknown, but that his office would not investigate the nature of their relationship.
“I don’t know that it was mutual,” Meyer said, adding Bernier at the time was on disability leave so he should not have been acting in any capacity.
Bernier later retired from the Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Correction in September of this year.
