NEWS

August trial date set in Salaam drug case

Spenser Hickey
Reporter

DELAWARE - Marion resident Najmuddeen Salaam, a former prison contractor and rehabilitation speaker, pleaded not guilty to drug charges Friday in Delaware County Common Pleas Court.

Bond was set at $150,000, according to the court, and the case is scheduled for a jury trial beginning Aug. 9.

Salaam was indicted Wednesday by a Delaware County grand jury on one count each of trafficking and possession of drugs, specifically cocaine. Because of the alleged amount, both charges are first-degree felonies and carry a major drug offender specification. A call to the office of Salaam's attorney was not returned.

Najmuddeen Salaam was arraigned in Delaware County Common Pleas Court  Friday.

On May 15, according to a MARMET Drug Task Force news release, Salaam was arrested in Delaware County after a traffic stop by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and MARMET detectives. In the release, MARMET Lt. Chris Adkins said Marion police K-9 Kaos aided in discovery of 365 grams of cocaine, and around $1,000 in cash also was found in the vehicle.

Marion Police Chief Bill Collins said they had been investigating Salaam for two months before the arrest because of suspicions Salaam was bringing drugs into Marion Correctional Institution and helping inmates continue drug trafficking operations. Currently, Salaam only has been charged in connection with the drugs allegedly found in the May 15 traffic stop.

"We would handle cases where people were stopped in our county," Delaware County First Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Rohrer said. "... Our charges do not involve anything with Marion (Correctional Institution). Our charges simply have to do with trafficking and possession of cocaine in Delaware County; he was driving through Delaware County."

Rohrer said Assistant Prosecutor Brian Walter is prosecuting the case, as he handles drug-related prosecutions, but another prosecutor likely will be added closer to the trial. Marion County Prosecutor Brent Yager said he could make no comment on whether Salaam might be charged in Marion County.

Salaam served 18 years in prison on a rape conviction but began volunteering at MCI a year after his 2009 release. Because of a change in federal law, however, his sexual assault conviction required him to be let go as a paid contractor in December 2013.

"(Salaam) pretty much had free reign of the prison (Marion Correctional Institution)," Collins said after Salaam's arrest. "He was able to come and go without being searched."

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said in an email after the arrest that "all employees, contractors, visitors, volunteers and guests are subject to standardized search procedures" upon entering state prison facilities, though she could not elaborate on those procedures for security reasons.

After the indictment, she provided a copy of a May 18 letter by ODRC Deputy Director Kevin Stockdale immediately terminating the contract with Salaam, who was a supervisor of the Prison News Network at MCI.

At the time of his arrest, Salaam also was listed as community development director at Healing Broken Circles, a Columbus nonprofit, and his sex offender registry listed him as an employee of Win Win Inc., an organization also in Columbus that does not appear to have an active website or working phone number.

Salaam since has been removed from Healing Broken Circles' website, and its director did not return a call from The Star after Salaam's arrest. Salaam's sex offender registry and the ODRC letter list him as a Marion resident.

Patrol officials told The Delaware Gazette that Salaam was pulled over for traveling 50 mph in a 45 mph zone of U.S. 23 at 8:04 p.m., and that his windows were tinted beyond the legal level. The newspaper report said court documents allege troopers found a duct-taped bag with a white substance and initial tests showed the substance was cocaine.

shickey@marionstar.com
740-244-9940
Twitter: @SpenserHickey