Summary: A Washington lawyer was caught allegedly distributing drugs and having sex with an inmate.
Lawyer William Mack Stoddard must’ve been very popular at the Pierce County Jail, but his reign is over. The News Tribune reported that the 68-year-old was charged with giving inmates drugs and paying for sex with one. On Wednesday, he pled not guilty to charges which included introducing contraband, unlawful delivery of a controlled substance, and conspiracy to delivery a controlled substance.
Stoddard of Tacoma had his privileges to visit the jail suspended, and his bail was set at $7,500. The Washington State Bar states he is in private practice and was admitted to the bar in 1979. He had no prior records of disciplinary actions against him. In 1990, he ran for Pierce County prosecutor but lost.
According to court documents, Stoddard visited the jail in February, noticeably reeking of marijuana. After he left, jail staff members checked his interview room, and they found concentrated THC (the leading chemical in marijuana) in the form of butane hash oil.
In Washington State, marijuana is legal, but it is not allowed in the jail.
Afterwards, staff interviewed the inmate who Stoddard had visited. Stoddard was representing him in a dependency proceeding. The inmate said he and the lawyer had sex when they met, and the documents said Stoddard had visited him 19 times in the span of a year. Those illegal conjugal visits resulted in Stoddard giving the inmate jail money, which he used for expenses and phone calls.
The inmate said in addition to their gay sex romps Stoddard gave him butane hash oil, which he would later sell to his inmate friends.
Prosecutors stated that they may add more charges in the future as the investigation proceeds further. Stoddard could not be reached by The News Tribune for comment.
Source: The News Tribune
Photo courtesy of ACLU