MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A Miami-Dade correctional officer is smiling in some evidence photos. But no doubt, she is not smiling anymore.
Officer Christy Laster -- who worked with the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department for 12 years -- spent Friday night at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She was arrested for allegedly shaking down inmates out on work release.
Kenneth Smith said his son Kendall was one of her victims. She was supposed to be supervising him, while he was part of a "militarily regimented" 20-year-old program.
"They are out there working hard, trying to earn a living for themselves when they get out of the boot camp." Smith said. "She [is] working in a system that [is] trying to help the kids, but she's doing the wrong thing."
Laster's neighbors said Friday night that she had a gambling problem. Investigators learned that she was a regular at The Seminole Hard Rock Casino, where she gambled away nearly $40,000.
According to investigators she stole more than $20,000 from the boot camp cadets, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said Friday. Prosecutors charged Laster, 35, with multiple counts of bribery, extortion, grand theft and petit theft.
The 19 cadets that she was accused of victimizing were in the second-phase of the rehabilitation program. After they were released, they were required to be employed.
According to prosecutors, the cadets were not allowed to have cash in their possession during the 60-day work-release program, and were required to pay the cost of the program supervision, which was usually a $10 daily fee.
Investigators said cadets reported that Laster convinced them to give her their money or else she was going to have them booted out of the program and arrested.
According to her arrest warrant, Laster also threatened to increase some of the cadets' cost of supervision if they snitched on her or refused to pay her. The victims' thefts ranged from $263 to $8,318.75, the warrant said. She was being held on a $443,000 bond.
"Now it seems to be her time to learn the price that criminality exacts," the state attorney said.
Marydell Guevara, Laster's boss, said they were "deeply saddened" and hoped that her actions were not going to "tarnish the good work" of other correction employees.