A Miami-Dade Department of Corrections employee assigned to the boot camp program was arrested after authorities say she extorted more than $20,000 from cadets.
Christy Laster, 35, was charged with six counts of extortion, six counts of bribery, 16 counts of grand theft and three counts of petty theft, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said Friday.
Laster, a 12-year employee, was arrested after a joint investigation with the State Attorney's Office and the Corrections Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. It's unknown if she has an attorney.
"The Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department’s Boot Camp Program has been in existence for over 20 years with the goal of helping its participants turn their lives around. On behalf of MDCR, I am deeply saddened over this incident," Director Marydell Guevara said in a statement. "The actions of one employee do not tarnish the good work of the Boot Camp Program nor of the dedicated men and women of Corrections. Immediately upon being notified, MDCR launched an investigation and worked closely with our law enforcement partners and the State Attorney’s Office. Our actions should send a strong message that persons involved in these types of crimes will not be tolerated and will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law."
Authorities said Laster supervised cadets in the second phase of the boot camp program, a 60-day work release after they spent four months in custody. The cadets were released into the community and had to have a job but weren't allowed to have cash and had to pay a fee for supervision, usually $10 a day.
Laster would induce the cadets to give her their wages under the guise of collecting the fee or threatening to have them violated out of the program and placed back in custody, authorities said.
Investigators discovered Laster was a regular customer at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and had expensive gambling losses of more than $38,000, authorities said.
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"As a case manager, Officer Laster appears to have taught a hypocritical lesson to all of these cadets who were trying to go straight," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Now, it seems to be her time to learn the price that criminality exacts."
