CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cuyahoga County jail guard arrested last week belonged to a network that smuggled drugs and contraband into the jail, a prosecutor said in court Monday.

Investigators also have evidence that connects corrections officer Stephen Thomas to an inmate’s overdose, the prosecutor said.

Matthew Meyer, who is working as a special prosecutor with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in a wide-ranging investigation into the jail, made the comments as part of a request for high bond during Thomas’s initial appearance Monday in Common Pleas Court.

Thomas, who had yet to hire an attorney, appeared alone and told Judge Pamela Barker that he did not understand the charges levied against him. Barker delayed the hearing until Tuesday to give him another day to talk to a lawyer.

Thomas was arrested Wednesday and charged Thursday with drug trafficking, drug possession possessing criminal tools and illegally conveying drugs into a jail after sheriff’s investigators watched him on surveillance video walk into a jail cell and deliver drugs to an inmate, court records say.

The case has not gone before a grand jury. Thomas was released with a GPS ankle monitor after he posted 10 percent of a $10,000 bond through a bonding agency.

Meyer told Barker on Monday that his office has evidence that also connects Thomas to an April 8 smuggling incident in the jail, and an inmate’s overdose. Meyer did not disclose a date for the overdose, or say if it was fatal or non-fatal.

“The defendant is going to be charged with some extremely serious offenses,” Meyer said.

Meyer also pointed out that Thomas recently filed for bankruptcy and was in dire financial straits. Meyer asked asked Barker to raise Thomas’s bond to $50,000 because, between his financial situation and the seriousness of the charges he could face, “there’s not much to prevent him from cutting off that GPS bracelet," Meyer said.

Thomas declined to comment when approached by cleveland.com after the hearing.

Thomas’ arrest marks the latest in a growing number of investigations into issues at the jail following eight inmate deaths in 2018 and an investigation by the U.S. Marshal that found inmates were subjected to inhumane conditions. Other investigations have focused on mismanagement of the jail, civil-rights abuses and officers attacking inmates.

Investigators searched the cell shortly after Thomas walked out and found 10 oxycodone pills, court records say.

A sheriff’s detective also wrote in court records he found in Thomas’s pocket a small piece of plastic glove that contained suspected drugs. Investigators seized $1,409 in cash and a cellphone Thomas used to conduct transactions, court records say.

The county placed Thomas, who was hired in February 2018, on unpaid administrative leave Thursday, county records say.

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