BUFFALO, Iowa — Two county employees once responsible for working with criminals may soon be among them.
On Monday, the Buffalo City Court arraigned former director of correctional health Christa M. Cutrona, 46, on counts of falsifying business records and misconduct. Cutrona allegedly falsified her time cards from Dec. 30, 2021 to Feb. 7, 2022, and fraudulently collected $1,300 in pay during that period.
The court also arraigned now-suspended jail deputy Niko Carter, 33, on counts of promoting prison contraband, conspiracy, and misconduct for allegedly sneaking dangerous contraband into the Erie County Holding Center and conspiring to sell it to inmates.
“I am pretty pissed off at what happened, and I'm disappointed in what happened,” said Erie County Sheriff John Garcia. “He will be going from wearing the very proud black and gold of the Erie County Sheriff's Office to what I hope is wearing orange.”
Officials said they believed Carter was working with someone on the inside, but due to the pending investigation, they would not give details on who that may be or what the contraband was. Carter had been an employee for just eight months before he was placed on unpaid administrative leave.
Garcia also did not disclose details on how Cutrona padded her timesheets but said it was discovered through an internal audit.
Both individuals were released on their own recognizance, as their charges are non-qualifying offenses for bail.
“You have thousands of people who work in the county, and whenever you have an organization that large, you're gonna have unfortunately individuals who misbehave,” Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said Monday.
But given the timing and that both employees worked within the same county office, 2 On Your Side pressed the sheriff on his office’s vetting process.
“There's many steps, but people are human beings,” Garcia said. “People make mistakes, or they're just criminals that fall through the cracks.”