James Lee McAlister, 25, of Muldrow was charged Friday in Sequoyah County District Court in Sallisaw with larceny of a controlled dangerous drug. A felony warrant was issued for his arrest Friday morning.
McAlister was booked into the Sequoyah County Jail in Sallisaw on Sunday and released within about an hour on a $5,000 bond, jail records indicated.
According to charges filed Friday in district court, the charge against McAlister stemmed from investigation by the Sequoyah County Sheriff's Office and the Roland Police Department.
Sequoyah County Sheriff's investigator Roger Fuller reported that he was requested on July 30 by Roland Police Chief Tommy Sessums and Roland Police Sgt. Jeremy Day to assist in the investigation of a theft of medication missing from a jail inmate, according to the charges. The medication that was missing was a controlled drug, hydrocodone, which is a pain reliever.
After interviewing the jailer-dispatchers, Fuller found that only two jailers had given out medications to the particular inmate, one of whom was McAlister.
The other jailer who had given out medications to the inmate allegedly reported that he could tell something was wrong with the medication count and called for other officers, who then called Day and Sessums.
The area is recorded and shows McAlister going to the medication locker several times, Fuller reported.
Under Miranda warning, McAlister allegedly admitted to stealing some of the inmate's hydrocodone and gave a signed written confession, Fuller reported.
Sessums on Tuesday had no comment about the case. He confirmed that McAlister, who had been a jailer for about one and a half to two years, had resigned from his position.
