Guard, inmate sentenced for smuggling convictions

PALMER — A former corrections officer and the inmate she smuggled contraband for were sentenced in a Palmer courtroom Wednesday.

Alaska State Troopers in 2014 arrested Stephanie Cravens, 26, on charges of smuggling drugs and a cell phone into Palmer Correctional Center inmate Michael Freeman, 32, according to Frontiersman articles at the time. Authorities originally charged Cravens with one count each of receiving a bribe, first-degree and second-degree promoting contraband, and official misconduct. Freeman had originally faced charges of bribery and promoting contraband. Both eventually pleaded guilty in December 2015 to a single count of first-degree promoting contraband.

Presiding judge Eric Smith sentenced Freeman to five years in prison with one year, six months suspended time and five years of probation. Cravens — who had no prior criminal record in Alaska — received a two-year suspended sentence with two years’ probation.

The judge said he believes she has a high probability of rehabilitation.

“I’d be shocked if I ever saw you again,” Smith said to Cravens during the hearing.

Testimony at Wednesday’s open sentencing brought out more case detail into public. Cravens agreed to bring in contraband in exchange for $1,100 and fake eyelashes, according to assistant district attorney Eric Senta, who prosecuted the case. The smuggled materials included the cell phone, the withdrawal drug Suboxone and ecstasy. The drugs ended up in the hands of incarcerated gang members, who sold them to other inmates in the prison, Senta said.

“It involves gangs, it involves convicted murderers, it involves significant drug dealers,” he said. “The community condemnation on this is incredibly high.”

He was in Palmer Correctional on a revoked probation charge stemming from a 2004 armed robbery conviction when he met Cravens, who worked at the prison. After being released, Freeman allegedly stole a pair of headphones from the Anchorage Target in January, and returned to jail (the charges in that case were later dismissed).

Incarceration limited Freeman’s attempts at rehabilitation, said public defender Bruce Brown. Freeman twice completed substance abuse treatment programs. However, widespread drug use in Department of Corrections-managed facilities had thwarted his attempts to move past addiction, Brown said.

“Hopefully he was trying to better himself and show that he could get beyond the drug use, beyond the drug influence that obviously is very prevalent in the Department of Corrections,” he said. “You can’t sort of escape it, you have to deal with it. He dealt with it in an erroneous way, obviously. But that doesn’t mean that he’s not trying.”

Freeman said he was trying to take responsibility for his past while planning for a future with a career and family.

“I believe in myself, your honor, now,” he said. “That’s a big difference. And I have others that believe in me, too. I take full responsibility for my actions and I’m ready to move on in a positive direction.”

Cravens’ defense attorney, Richard Payne, said there was more at play in the case than some money and eyelashes, but instead involved self-esteem, an illicit romantic relationship, responsibility, and honor. Cravens’ family have long been corrections officers in Alaska, compounding her guilt over the crimes.

Freeman also preyed upon Cravens’ low self-esteem, Payne said.

“As a corrections officer, she spent more time with the individuals incarcerated than she did with her own family, her own daughter,” he said. “It’s not realistic to believe that a normal human being would not have some relationship with the inmates they monitor.”

Cravens had repeatedly pushed for a resolution to the court case, even when it didn’t suit her best interests, Payne said.

“Right now, she simply wanted to fall on her sword today and just get punished,” he said. “As her advocate, I had no choice but at least bring these elements to the court’s attention in order for the court to make an honest and deliberative decision. Mr. Senta indicated it was $1,100 and eyelashes. It’s more than that.”

In a tearful allocution, Cravens said she had damaged her profession’s reputation and her relationship with other family members in the civil service. She was pleading guilty in part to set a good example for her daughter.

“To this day, nearly two years later, I am still an outsider to extended family members that I served alongside,” she said. “I do not believe I have the right to beg for their forgiveness, and my intent is not to ask for your leniency. I was taught that actions speak louder than words. As a public servant I chose to act completely out of character and now I must prove through actions again that I am not that person.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.