GUARD PLEADS GUILTY TO TRYING TO DELIVER HEROIN TO PRISONERS

SARANAC LAKE -- A state corrections officer faces state prison after
pleaded guilty Friday in Franklin County Court to attempting to
deliver narcotics to the Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone,
where he worked.

Michael D. Bradish, 34, was caught on tape last September receiving
37 bundles of heroin from a St. Lawrence County man in a joint
investigation that included state police, the state Department of
Corrections and the Franklin County District Attorney's Office.

State police intercepted Bradish the next day on his way to work and
found the drugs following a search. He has pleaded guilty to two
felonies: attempted promoting prison contraband and attempted
criminal possession of controlled substance, plus misdemeanor
official misconduct. Following the plea, he was remanded to the
Franklin County Jail in Malone without bail and is scheduled to be
sentenced next month; he could receive from one-and-one-third to four
years in state prison.

Franklin County District Attorney Derek Champagne said Bradish had
been the center of an arrangement in which Bradish delivered heroin
that had been mailed from New York City to the prison in which he worked.

"As a result of this investigation, several other corrections
officers have resigned or were fired for improper conduct," Champagne
said today. Because of state Department of Corrections regulations,
Champagne said he couldn't release further details.

"I wish I could make public all of the details," Champagne said.

One of Bradish's alleged accomplices, Scott Monroe of Brasher Falls,
is facing charges in St. Lawrence County for his alleged role in the smuggling.