Federal prison counselor agrees to plead guilty to accepting illegal benefits from wealthy inmate

BOSTON (AP) — An inmate counselor at a federal prison in Massachusetts received about $140,000 in illegal benefits and loans through a wealthy prisoner in his care, federal prosecutors said.

William S. Tidwell, 49, of Keene, New Hampshire, has agreed to plead guilty to bribery in violation of official duties, making false statements to a bank and identity theft, the U.S. attorney in Boston said Monday.

Tidwell will appear in federal court at a later date. His attorney, Brad Bailey, said Tuesday he had no comment.

Other news Pakistan’s Imran Khan will face fresh charges of contempt in August, his lawyer says Pakistan’s election oversight body said it would indict the country’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan next week on charges of publicly insulting its officials last year. Indonesian police crack down on traffickers who sent 122 people to sell their kidneys in Cambodia Indonesian police are investigating the illegal trade in human organs involving police and immigration officers who were accused of helping traffickers send 122 Indonesians to a hospital in Cambodia to sell their kidneys. Jury to deliver verdict over Brussels extremist attacks that killed 32 A jury is expected to render its verdict Tuesday over Belgium’s deadliest peacetime attack. The suicide bombings at the Brussels airport and a busy subway station in 2016 killed 32 people in a wave of attacks in Europe claimed by the Islamic State group. Japan police arrest woman, parents in beheading of man at hotel in Hokkaido entertainment district Japanese police say they have arrested a woman and her parents in a beheading case in a popular night entertainment district in Japan’s northern city of Sapporo, where a headless man was found in a hotel room three weeks ago.

Tidwell has worked for the Bureau of Prisons since 2000 and since 2008 has been at the Federal Medical Center-Devens. As a counselor, his duties included working closely with inmates on their work and housing assignments. Under Bureau of Prisons rules, employees are not allowed to receive payments, gifts, or personal favors from inmates.

One of the inmates Tidwell supervised was what prosecutors described as an “ultra-high net worth” individual serving time for financial crimes.

That inmate, identified only as “Individual 1” in court documents, in 2018 directed a close friend and business associate to wire $25,000 to a member of Tidwell’s family, prosecutors said. Starting in 2019, Tidwell and the wealthy inmate entered into a property management agreement that resulted in $65,000 in benefits to Tidwell, prosecutors said.

Tidwell also allegedly received a $50,000 loan from the wealthy inmate’s associate to buy a home, prosecutors said. He lied, telling the bank that the $50,000 was a gift and forging documents to support that claim, authorties said.

“Corrections officers are placed in a position of public trust,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “The vast majority of corrections officers carry out their duties with integrity and professionalism. They know that accepting payments from an inmate — as is alleged against Mr. Tidwell here — is a serious violation of that trust and a betrayal of the BOP’s mission to care for federal inmates in a safe and impartial manner.”