Denise Prell (Photo provided)

PLATTSBURGH — In an unexpected move, Clinton County Court Judge William Favreau sentenced former Clinton Correctional Facility employee Denise Prell to two concurrent years of jail time.

She must also pay $13,000 in fines for charges stemming from her inappropriate relationship with an inmate.

Prell was immediately handcuffed and, in tears, led out of the courtroom.

On Aug. 28, the Schuyler Falls woman pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree promoting prison contraband, one of third-degree sexual abuse and 23 counts of official misconduct.

A provisional tailor shop employee at the prison in Dannemora, Prell admitted to a romantic relationship with an inmate she’d seen daily there. She gave him money, a cellphone and set up a post office box so they could communicate by letter.

And she admitted to kissing him.

The day Prell admitted guilt in court, Favreau requested a pre-sentencing investigation be completed by the Clinton County Probation Department.

According to Prell’s attorney, Justin Herzog, the Probation Department had recommended three years of probation and no jail time.

“The court frequently relies on the Probation Department’s recommendation,” he said after the sentencing.

A tearful Prell addressed Favreau during her sentencing.

“I am very thankful my actions did not cause harm to anyone at Clinton Correctional,” she said.

However, Judge Favreau disagreed with her.

“Your criminality in this matter that you plead guilty to is difficult if not possible to understand in light of what this community went through in the education process of how serious misconduct in a correctional facility can be,” he said.

“And while there may not have been any harm to the community in general, we all know having lived through in 2015, what that experience can be for a community.”

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Similar cases

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Favreau was referencing how another civilian tailor shop worker at Clinton had aided two murderers in their escape from the prison.

The contraband Joyce Mitchell brought in helped Richard Matt and David Sweat to saw holes in the backs of their cells to create exits to the bowels of the facility, from which they found freedom through a manhole on the other side of the prison wall.

Mitchell is serving two-and-a-third to seven years in state prison for a felony first-degree promoting prison contraband conviction.

Prell had faced that same felony charge, but in July, Herzog won a challenge on that one.

She had been accused of giving the inmate a $100 bill, which under the felony designation made it “dangerous prison contraband.”

Favreau reduced the charge to second-degree promoting prison contraband, a misdemeanor, saying no evidence had been presented to show that amount of money could have undermined the safety or security of the prison.

Tuesday, Favreau sentenced Prell to a jail term of one year for the first count of the indictment for promoting prison contraband, plus fines and surcharges.

In connection with third-degree sexual abuse, a misdemeanor, the judge gave her a fine and no additional jail time.

That charge resulted from the kissing that Prell admitted to; inmates cannot legally consent to sexual contact with prison employees.

With respect to the additional 23 misconduct charges, Favreau imposed a sentence of incarceration in the Clinton County Jail of one year.

“I am not going to make any of those sentences consecutive to the others all periods of jail time, and incarceration will be served concurrently,” he said.

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Tough pill

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Herzog said the judge’s decision was a tough pill to swallow.

“I am a combination of being surprised and being very disappointed,” he said. “I thought our community was better off with Denise Prell in it rather than sitting in the Clinton County Jail.”

Herzog said the judge’s decision not to follow the Probation Department’s pre-sentencing report was not ordinary.

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“So egregious”

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According to Assistant District Attorney Timothy Blatchley, the People asked for the maximum sentence allowable under the law because of the seriousness and the ongoing nature of the offenses.

Prell’s criminal activity began in the spring of 2017 while employed by the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and ended in the fall of 2017, the ADA said, after the inmate whom she allowed herself to become entangled with in a romantic relationship was moved from Clinton Correctional Facility.

“There are times when things are so egregious and so serious that the maximum allowed for by law is appropriate, and the People feel this is one of those times,” Blatchley said.

Since Prell’s sentences run concurrently, she will only serve a year at most.

Typically, an individual serves two thirds of their sentence minus any time already served; Prell could be out of jail in as early as eight months.