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© St. Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Ten Pasco County inmates were sent to the hospital on Wednesday morning after a 28-year-old inmate gave them Xanax he had smuggled into the jail, said sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers.
Alan Keehn, of 4220 Crestwood Blvd., was charged with possession of contraband. The inmates who took the pills were released from Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point on Wednesday afternoon, Powers said. All were fine.
Powers said Keehn had swallowed 30 Xanax in a latex balloon. Later, Keehn regurgitated the balloon in a bathroom of the Detention West Facility in New Port Richey and traded the pills with inmates for food and other items, Powers said.
Keehn had been sentenced to serve time on weekends for a scheme to defraud conviction in 2000, Powers said. Keehn had ordered $7,600 in tools from a catalog company and had them sent to different addresses, where he picked them up and did not pay for them, according to Powers.
On Feb. 5, Keehn was sentenced to 50 days, to be served on weekends. For Keehn, that meant he arrived at the jail at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and was released at 6 p.m. on Thursdays.
At about 1 a.m. on Wednesday, another inmate asked a detention deputy about blood pressure medication. The officer thought the inmate was possibly under the influence of something, and investigated.
The other nine inmates will face disciplinary action, Powers said.
Last week, Michael Francis Wiley, 36, faced contraband charges after putting Xanax and other pills in a plastic bag, and then tucking it inside his prosthetic leg before he entered the Land O' Lakes jail, deputies said.