ACTING on a tip, the Department of Corrections Emergency Response Team conducted a “shakedown” or search of prison cells and discovered a clear plastic resealable zipper storage bag containing a crystalline substance and a glass pipe in the cell assigned to Yichuan Bai.
Bai is an inmate serving time for his involvement in a drug trafficking case.
Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho at a hearing on Wednesday found probable cause to charge Bai with one count of illegal possession of a controlled substance.
Bai, through court-appointed attorney Anthony Aguon, pled not guilty to the charge.
Assistant Attorney General Chester Hinds, who appeared for the government, told the court that there is enough evidence and testimony to find probable cause to charge Bai.
Aguon, however, said the items in question were found not in Bai’s body but rather in a jail cell.
According to Department of Public Safety Detective Jackson Davis, the clear plastic resealable zipper storage bag containing the crystalline substance and the glass pipe were found in a mattress inside Bai’s jail cell after a search conducted by Corrections officers on Dec. 16.
He said other than Bai, the only persons who had access to the cells in that area were Corrections officers.
The crystalline substance was tested and yielded presumptive positive for methamphetamine, Davis added.
Davis said he attempted to interview Bai the next day through an interpreter, but the “defendant refused to give a statement without a lawyer.”
Asked whether the detective knows how the contraband got into the secure facility, Davis said, based on his interview and investigation of other Corrections personnel, it could have been smuggled by Corrections officers.
But Bai also interacted with other inmates during recreation time in the facility, Davis added.
Another hearing on the case has been scheduled for Jan. 22, 2021 at 9 a.m. before Associate Judge Kenneth L. Govendo.
